SwiftKey Flow beta now open | Hacker News Reader

SwiftKey Flow beta now open

swiftkey.net

48 pointsHugoDias27 comments

I quite like using SwiftKey, its great at fixing my sloopy typing.

But coming out from under my tin foil hat (coincidently I just returned from a crypto-party at the Open Source Developers Conference), I don't trust proprietary keyboards which require internet permissions, because they have access to all of the passwords I type in. I've got DroidWall [0] denying internet access to it, and I can sleep easier at night. The only down side is I can't download new dictionaries if they become available.

[0] - http://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=droidwall&...

Edit: Specified why I don't like them having internet permissions

At least in this case it's well known why the permissions are needed.

You could use Titanium Backup to back up SwiftKey, download the new dictionaries copy them somewhere safe, restore your files, than replace the dictionaries.

I don't think you can avoid entering passwords into software that can connect to the internet. And once you start using a desktop or laptop, anything and everything can both listen to your keystrokes and also connect to the internet.

Swiftkey was almost perfect. Then came last big release (not this one) and started to insert spaces between perfectly written combined words as well as adding what seems like a hard coded "correction" of i to I regardless of context. (One of the languages I write uses i a lot.)

Someone else reported it, I and several others voted the bug, nothing happens. I still use it but now it may take days after a new firmware before I care to reinstall.

can you link to the bug please ? I thought it was something wrong with my typing.

They really aren't very responsive. I don't think it should take so long to make changes this trivial. What you describe is a new feature that can tell if you missed a space, but, since it's a problem for you, they should have added a simple checkbox where you can disable it.

I have no idea why many companies don't release often.

I find that it wouldn't store words I've told it to remember and would constantly tell me they're misspelt, or it would remember bogus words and would continuously autocorrect them. Meanwhile, the stock Android keyboard is pretty nice, I don't know how long SwiftKey will continue selling when they are this sluggish.

On top of that, the "send feedback" feature on the mobile phone redirects you to a forum where you have to go through a lengthy registration process just to post something. I'm really disappointed and frustrated by SwiftKey's (nonexistent) customer support.

Not only that, but instead of a newline button now, there's a shortcut to emoticons. Because somehow that's more important than inserting a new line.

That's customizable isn't it? When I text I'd much rather have emoticons than a newline, whereas it's opposite with emails, and I've found that Swiftkey does a good job switching between them (somehow).

To my knowledge, there isn't a setting that changes it, but if you know of one, please let me know! I tend to send pretty longform texts to my girlfriend, so it's a bigger deal to me than probably most people.

Of course, recently we've been using Whatsapp instead and that works perfectly fine.

I have SwiftKey and Swype. There's a reason I don't install Swype anymore (and - what's the point now, if recent versions of Android bring this functionality?)

That aside, SwiftKey isn't active on my devices either: It was really neat and got worse. It's technically unusable for my 'flow' right now and I see the same issue reported multiple times on their site. No fix. Keyboard that doesn't work as keyboard: Failed product. Adding a new way to input stuff while the current version is broken is a bad way to treat users..

Swype has one huge benefit that the Android stock keyboard doesn't: if it autocorrects incorrectly, you just tap the incorrect word and it will display a list of alternatives. Tap one and it replaces the incorrect word. The Android keyboard forces deletion & retyping/swiping incorrectly autocorrected/autocompleted words.

I also like how Swype also allows you easily add words to your dictionary while you're typing. As far as I know Stock android requires you going to the settings screen and adding them there.

I just tried SwiftKey and one thing Swype does a lot better: when it gets the word wrong swype lets you horizontally "scroll" through a list of ~10-15 possible matches. SwiftKey only gives you the top 3 matches to choose from. Often the word I wanted was not in the top 3 closest words that either program thought it was -- and with Swype I can scroll right and pick the correct word.

I use SwiftKey too, and am quite happy with it. Nonetheless, 'm not really convinced when it comes to enhancing a keyboard with such a feature without first having tweaked it to near perfection. At the moment, I still get quite a lot of autocorrection errors that I need to then fix manually (if I happen to notice them before hitting send..), which is not as quick as it could be, but still bearable. I can't imagine going back and trying to fix something if whole sentences are typed in one go. Having said that, if I didn't have to worry about autocorrection errors, this would be awesome.

One of the reasons why SwiftKey doesn't perform as well as it could for me might be that I use it with two languages, typing in each more or less 50% of the time. The fact that it can predict the next word based on the current one does help here in order to get the language right, but the three measly slots it has for word suggestions are still cluttered with words from the other language most of the time when I type. I think performance would boost if it could detect the language during the first few words and only suggest words in that language from that point forward. Then again, I often mix the two languages in a single sentence..

I often mix the two languages in a single sentence

This, for me, is the killer feature of SwiftKey. I hate having to go into some settings panel and switch between languages each time I want to type something. I don't think I'd ever consider switching to a keyboard that didn't support this.

I use 2 languages with the stock 4.2 keyboard just fine. Changing via spacebar.

..And it's really nice.

I've only tested it on my Nexus 7 but the swiping motions are very smooth and nicely decorated. The 'never lift your finger from the screen' thing works very well, and its genuinely a really pleasant keyboard to use.

It also still works like SwiftKey itself. Despite the opinions of many in this thread, I still consider it to be a a wonderful keyboard if you use it on a device that can keep up and you train it right. It really can make typing very fast with its excellent predictions.

The combination of the predictions with the swiping motion means it comes up with reasonable sentences rather than just relying on the individual words it thinks you typed.

> The 'never lift your finger from the screen' thing works very well

Really? I can't get it to work at all. It looks like it tries to predict the entire sentence, and if it gets lost it just drops the whole thing. I would much rather it spit out a word each time I swipe down to the spacebar, that way if there is a prediction error I can stop and correct that word without losing an entire sentence.

I suppose mixed results are typical of beta software. Did you try it on a tablet or a mobile? Perhaps the dropped sentences happen more often on a smaller screen? (since the target areas are shrunk?)

Is it still buggy as all hell?

For example, it sometimes gets my HW keyboard state reversed (when I slide the keyboard out, the on-screen keyboard appears, and when I retract it the on-screen keyboard disappears).

It's also completely unusable with firefox.

SwiftKey is incompatible with other apps. Typing in Firefox or Sygic gives all kinds of problems. If these issues were fixed its prediction capabilities would make it the best keyboard out there. I've reported the issues and haven't seen any progress.

Check out 'Touchpal'. I've been using that instead.

tl,dr: Swiftkey got more swypey.

Pretty much. I tried the current Swiftkey, and found Swype better. I just wish Swype wouldn't wipe my custom dictionary on each upgrade.

I like Swype as well, but Swiftkey supports multiple languages and that's a great plus for people from other countries that use english terms all the time.

Fair enough. I'm lucky enough that English is my primary (and in terms of texting etc only) language.

is there a swype/swiftkey equivalent on iOS? I miss swype the most since switching.

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