

SwiftKey Flow beta now open - HugoDias
http://swiftkey.net/flow/

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pserwylo
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&...](http://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=droidwall&fdid=com.googlecode.droidwall)

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

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randomchars
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.

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eitland
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.

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gareim
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.

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DeadMonkey321
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).

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gareim
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.

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darklajid
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..

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eitally
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.

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JulianK
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.

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elisehein
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..

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dagw
_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.

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

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ElliotH
..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.

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elemenohpee
> 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.

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ElliotH
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?)

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aidenn0
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.

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liminal
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.

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

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swah
tl,dr: Swiftkey got more swypey.

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

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swah
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.

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

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

