The folks at SwiftKey have made a hell of a good keyboard for Android phones and tablets. They've garnered numerous awards for it, from names like the GSMA, Fast Company, and our very own Editor's Choice awards for two years running. We're on record saying it's simply the best all around predictive text keyboard money can buy. There's a reason SwiftKey has sold over 2,000,000 copies and has over 70,000 5-star ratings in Google Play.
When they debuted their beta versions of SwiftKey Flow, which incorporates swiping gestures into the keyboard, folks fell in love with it all over again. It was a swiping keyboard, with great autocorrect and personalized predictions that seemed to read our minds.
SwiftKey has finalized things and they have released SwiftKey 4. It's on sale for $1.99 (it's normally a $3.99 app) if you don't already have SwiftKey, and it's a free upgrade for everybody who has already purchased. SwiftKey 4 incorporates "the flow" on top of the great features we're already using, and it just works. Ask anyone who has been using the beta builds -- you want this keyboard. Grab it from the Google Play link above, or install the tablet version from Google Play here.
SwiftKey 4 Best-Selling Android App Revolutionized with Innovative ‘SwiftKey Flow’ Gesture Typing
SAN FRANCISCO -- February 20, 2013 — SwiftKey 4 launches today on Google Play with smarter features that make typing on a touchscreen faster, easier and more accurate. Available now at the promo price of $1.99 and as a free upgrade for existing users, the new release features a unique take on gesture typing called SwiftKey Flow.
SwiftKey Flow combines the mind-reading capabilities of SwiftKey’s personalized autocorrect engine with the speed of gliding your fingers across the screen. This revolutionary approach to continuous input begins predicting words from the moment a user touches the screen and goes on to predict their next word when they let go. A unique feature called ‘Flow Through Space’ also makes gesture typing more powerful than ever before by allowing users to enter entire phrases simply by gliding to the space bar between words.
SwiftKey 4 adds to everything that has made the app a bestseller since first launching in 2010. Users can still tap to type, the app constantly learns a user’s style to ease the frustration of entering long words and users can further personalize predictions by granting access to their Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, SMS or blog posts.
“Everyone’s had embarrassing autocorrect moments,” said Ben Medlock, SwiftKey co-founder and CTO. “That’s why we built SwiftKey to understand the context of words, not just their spelling. It works from the word go to adjust to you — from the phrases you write to how you touch the screen. It means you don’t have to worry about typing, it does all the hard work for you.”
The new features in SwiftKey 4 include:
- SwiftKey Flow - blending SwiftKey’s mind-reading next-word prediction and autocorrect with the speed of gesture typing
- Flow Through Space - lets users write entire sentences in one motion without ever having to lift their finger to add a space
- Support for contextual prediction across 60 languages - with new support for Albanian, Bosnian, Javanese, Sundanese, Thai and Vietnamese, all with dynamic auto-correction and next word prediction
- Easier corrections - tap on a word and SwiftKey 4 will move the cursor to the end of the word and offer two alternatives
- Personalized typing style - whether you write inaccurately with two thumbs or more carefully using a single finger, SwiftKey 4 now automatically adapts to how users type to provide more insightful corrections and prediction
Beta versions of the app have been tested by more than 200,000 SwiftKey fans over the last 11 weeks, with more than 2.4 billion characters flowed. A No.1 best-selling app on Google Play in 38 countries, SwiftKey is available in 60 languages and counting. For more information about SwiftKey, visit www.swiftkey.net.
About SwiftKey
SwiftKey was founded by Cambridge University graduates Jon Reynolds, CEO and Dr Ben Medlock, CTO in August 2008. With a growing team of over 90 people, the company is based in Southwark, London, UK.
The company’s technology makes typing much easier on touchscreen devices, powering the text entry experience with intelligent natural language technology. This is seen in the flagship SwiftKey keyboard app on Android, which launched in September 2010. The app understands how words work together to give much more accurate corrections and predictions than other keyboards. It can even predict a user’s next word as they type and also powerfully learns over time to make typing easier and even more accurate. Users can personalize SwiftKey using Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, SMS or their blog posts.
In the last year, SwiftKey won a People’s Voice Webby Award for Mobile Experimentation and Innovation, Most Innovative App at the GSMA awards at Mobile World Congress and has also been recently named one of the top 10 most innovative companies in the world by Fast Company. Its bespoke product for clinicians using touchscreens, SwiftKey Healthcare, is currently shortlisted for “Best Mobile Health Product or Service” at the 2013 GSMA awards and last year won the Best Enterprise Appster at the Apps World conference.
