4 ms·

Swipe typing on Android rules.

by kordless 13y ago

omaranto 13y ago
It probably rules on iOS, too.
- cocoflunchy 13y ago
  Except that you can't change the default keyboard on iOS.
  - reeses 13y ago
    Interestingly, many of the 'alternative' layouts don't have the same advantages on the phone.[1] For example, any of the layouts that emphasize home row locality, such as the * aks, don't really help when you're typing with two thumbs. The Sholes "slow you down just enough to avoid a physical constraint" method turns out to be useful when you have two digits flopping around with the potential of being in each other's way. Also, you can change the default keyboard at the application level[2], but this leads to annoying "edit here, copy, paste there" workflow solutions. You can also change it at the system level if you have a phone that can be jailbroken. A particularly awesome example of alternative keyboard implementations on iOS is Hipjot[3], which affords two-finger swype-style typing. The developer demonstrates 120wpm touch-typing on his phone[4] and advertises 70-90wpm on the Hipjot app store page. [1] Pretend I acknowledged the iPad. [2] Fleksy includes an SDK option. http://fleksy.com http://fleksy.com [3] http://jormy.com/hipjot/ http://jormy.com/hipjot/ [4] http://www.macrumors.com/2014/01/11/new-ios-swiping-keyboard-capable-of-120wpm-speeds/ http://www.macrumors.com/2014/01/11/new-ios-swiping-keyboard...
  - omaranto 13y ago
    Oh! Right. That totally slipped my mind, since I haven't used iOS for a few years now.
lelandbatey 13y ago
I really don't get how it's so awesome. I have SwiftKey on my android phone and it's never been faster for me to swipe Type vs just tape type with my phone. The predictions are some much easier and cause much less friction than trying to swipe everywhere. Can someone who really loves swipe keyboard explain?
- rhizome 13y ago
  It's faster for me, but I think an underappreciated benefit is that it allows people to write text with either hand.
- rcthompson 13y ago
  SwiftKey is not Swype. I've tried SwiftKey, and whatever algorithm they use to figure out what word you were trying to swipe is terrible. With SwiftKey's swipe typing, certain words are simply impossible to type because there are other more common words along their path. In contrast, with Swype, I can consistently type any word I want to, and do so faster then with tapping each letter individually. Furthermore, since I just have to swipe my finger past each letter, swiping requires less precision than tapping, which requires me to hit the letter exactly.

Swipe typing on Android rules.

omaranto 13y ago

It probably rules on iOS, too.

cocoflunchy 13y ago
Except that you can't change the default keyboard on iOS.
- reeses 13y ago
  Interestingly, many of the 'alternative' layouts don't have the same advantages on the phone.[1] For example, any of the layouts that emphasize home row locality, such as the * aks, don't really help when you're typing with two thumbs. The Sholes "slow you down just enough to avoid a physical constraint" method turns out to be useful when you have two digits flopping around with the potential of being in each other's way. Also, you can change the default keyboard at the application level[2], but this leads to annoying "edit here, copy, paste there" workflow solutions. You can also change it at the system level if you have a phone that can be jailbroken. A particularly awesome example of alternative keyboard implementations on iOS is Hipjot[3], which affords two-finger swype-style typing. The developer demonstrates 120wpm touch-typing on his phone[4] and advertises 70-90wpm on the Hipjot app store page. [1] Pretend I acknowledged the iPad. [2] Fleksy includes an SDK option. http://fleksy.com http://fleksy.com [3] http://jormy.com/hipjot/ http://jormy.com/hipjot/ [4] http://www.macrumors.com/2014/01/11/new-ios-swiping-keyboard-capable-of-120wpm-speeds/ http://www.macrumors.com/2014/01/11/new-ios-swiping-keyboard...
- omaranto 13y ago
  Oh! Right. That totally slipped my mind, since I haven't used iOS for a few years now.

lelandbatey 13y ago

I really don't get how it's so awesome. I have SwiftKey on my android phone and it's never been faster for me to swipe Type vs just tape type with my phone. The predictions are some much easier and cause much less friction than trying to swipe everywhere. Can someone who really loves swipe keyboard explain?

rhizome 13y ago
It's faster for me, but I think an underappreciated benefit is that it allows people to write text with either hand.
rcthompson 13y ago
SwiftKey is not Swype. I've tried SwiftKey, and whatever algorithm they use to figure out what word you were trying to swipe is terrible. With SwiftKey's swipe typing, certain words are simply impossible to type because there are other more common words along their path. In contrast, with Swype, I can consistently type any word I want to, and do so faster then with tapping each letter individually. Furthermore, since I just have to swipe my finger past each letter, swiping requires less precision than tapping, which requires me to hit the letter exactly.