United Kingdom
Very
good
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SwiftKey X Keyboard – Type the Night Away, with new features!
Tested version: 2.1.0.242
Latest version: 2.2.0.159
Requires Android: from 2.1
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Summary
Android comes with a virtual keyboard which can sometime seem like it has a mind of its own—there’s definitely room for improvement there, which is just what the SwiftKey X Keyboard people must’ve thought to themselves. What they came up with is a virtual keyboard the can predict words and even full sentences, and it keeps getting better the longer you use it. Sounds like a dream! Is it?
Well, honestly, Swiftkey X isn’t too bad at all, especially since the update. And that’s a massive understatement, BTW.
Features & Use
Section rating:
Test device: LG Optimus Speed / 2x
Android version: 2.3.5
Mods: MIUI
I’ve tested many keyboards but, truth be told, none have really struck a chord with me. So my expectations weren’t soaring when I decided to try out SwiftKey X Keyboard, but I must say that I was very pleasantly surprised.
In a nutshell: SwiftKey X susses out your style of writing and enables you to write entire sentences merely by hitting the space bar. Amaze-balls!
After you install the keyboard an assistant guides you through the primary setup. Up to three dictionaries (in three different languages, obviously) can be downloaded and stay active simultaneously. In my experience the system does a brilliant job at recognising which language I was writing in (I would say it is 99% accurate).
There are standard language packages, as well as personalised ones which SwiftKey X puts together using data from Facebook, GMail, Twitter and SMS you’ve sent out. This means that SwiftKey starts ‘learning’ your personal language/i.e. style from the get-go. Transferring data from said external sources to SwiftKey worked like a charm, and the app keeps getting better and better the more you use it and the more it becomes knowledgeable of your way of writing.
The assistant even asks you to evaluate your own typing skills, that is it want to know how precisely you can type, in order to optimise the suggestions.
I’ve been using the app for several weeks now and feel it’s safe to say that it’s a great tool and time saver. I checked SwiftKey’s statistics and am told that my writing efficiency has gone up by 30% . I also didn’t have to type in thousands of characters.
You can also check out statistics – such as how many words SwiftKey X has already predicted – in this menu.
There’s an option for sharing said statistics via Twitter, Facebook, Google+, E-mail and more—though, to be honest, I don’t quite see the point of this… Unless you want to show off to your iPhone user friends, that is! ;-p
The Heatmap function is also pretty nifty—it displays a visual of where the keyboard can be found most frequently.
Long press on ‘123’ and a separate keyboards only for smilies, symbols and arrow buttons opens up. This is especially useful for navigating through texts on devices that don’t have a trackball.
You can also choose to have the arrows displayed near the bottom of the display permanently.
You can also alter the appearance of the keyboard using the ‘Theme and layout’ options. There are three themes to choose from: light, dark and a blue neon one. I like all three.
The keyboard can also be changed from QWERTY to QWERTZ.
Check out the 'Advanced' section of the settings to see how you can make changes that will optimise SwiftKey X even more to suit your personal preferences. For instance, you can determine what hitting the spacebar should enable—a blank space, the completion of a word or the insertion of the next prediction.
SwiftKey X can determine upper/lower case for you, or you can choose to do so on your own.
Another cool new function: you can now long press on a button in order to see alternatives – e.g. the @ symbol – a popup appears displaying all of the options. You can make your selection by swiping.
Bottom line:
SwiftKey X Keyboard can help save a lot of time, period. The app can complete whole sentences for you, and even knows which smiley is context-appropriate. I love that the app supports three languages as once, and I really wouldn’t want to have to make do without this app after seeing what a difference it can make.
Screen & Controls
Section rating:
SwiftKey X Keyboard is easy and intuitive to use. The setup assitant is especially useful. We’re knocking one star off because the settings are in English only.
Speed & Stability
Section rating:
SwiftKey X Keyboard runs absolutely smoothly. Pristine and stabile performance.
Price/Performance Ratio
Section rating:
SwiftKey X Keyboard is available in the App Center and usually costs 2,99€, but seeing as it is our App of the Week you can now download it for only 1,99€!
Developer
Top App:
SwiftKey X Keyboard
* Global Mobile Awards Most Innovative App 2012 * SwiftKey X Keyboard makes typing much (...)
* Global Mobile Awards Most Innovative App 2012 * SwiftKey X Keyboard makes typing much (...)
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Market Comments
Don, Apr 18, 2012
Great keyboard. Simply the best. Great keyboard! Not the design fault, but ever since the most recent chrome browser update, this keyboard acts crazy on text input boxes.. Cm9 samsung I9100 gs2.
Ric, Apr 18, 2012
Best keyboard I've been using it for months now and I'm very satisfied with the application. The only flaw in my opinion is that it sometimes opens with a short delay on my Samsung Galaxy S.
ryan, Apr 18, 2012
Wow. I didn't realize how much this keyboard improved my typing until I stopped using it and went back to my phones stock keyboard. No keyboard even comes close to this one in terms of efficiency. My only issue, which is the same one listed by many others, is the complete absence of additional themes. I just don't understand why the creators wouldn't either create more themes or allow users too. Literally, every other market keyboard has many, many different themes to choose from.
Neil, Apr 18, 2012
Amazing This app solves the galaxy s2 biggest problem of its dreadful messaging touch screen. This app is simple to use and actually learns how you type. I would highly recommend this for download.
Teagan, Apr 18, 2012
Good It's a good keyboard, but it's needs more themes!! If you expect us to pay for this app you should at least add a few more themes.
shanaya, Apr 18, 2012
Change of heart Loved it on HTC Evo, but on Galaxy s ii, it is a let down. The "learning" Is very delayed and it cuts off words in the middle if you have to move the cursor to a previous line of text. I spend a lot of time undoing auto corrections that I have already overridden. There is also some buggy issue that repeats text or deletes all in a field just from using the backspace key. It is better than stock, but there's a lot of room for improvement.
Ivan, Apr 18, 2012
Problem On galaxy nexus a problem occurs. every time I type a notification occurs please fix
bookworm, Apr 18, 2012
Great but bugs on SGS2 Better than the built-in one but bugs in entering text into forms in browsers like Firefox - can't enter more than one word. It wipes it out and overwrites.
FDD, Apr 18, 2012
Best predictive experience ever! Agree with others that this SwiftKey X is by far one of the best. Other keyboards match or exceed its key layout, but none seem to come close to the uncanny word predictions. It really learns better than the rest which words I string together most often. I use TouchPal Curve now, because slider keyboards are still much faster to use than pecking out letters one at a time, but boy do I miss the way this one picks up words from my emails, texts, etc.
yusriblade
wasting my time