Are you enjoying the virtual keyboard on your touchscreen Android? I know plenty of people who won’t give it much of a try and have gone with the Droid or other physical keyboard device. Others I know have had trouble getting used to the feel of a key-less keyboard. It’s taken me quite a while to pick it up, though I have to say that it feels better in Android 2.2 (but that might just be in my head). A few weeks ago we looked at Swype, which boasts to make you a faster virtual typer. Still, that brings problems too.
Most of us are used to a typical QWERTY layout, and while Swype does present this it functions in a different way. You drag between letters to create words. Apparently after you dig into it you can type much faster than before, but I can still imagine getting tripped up after a while. For those who want a keyboard better than the stock Android one, SwiftKey might provide the answer. It is familiar in look and feel, but it also boasts faster typing speeds thanks to their predictive text system.
The predictive text not only picks out the most common words based on the first few letters you type, but it learns the words you use most frequently. This is the one thing I dislike about the Android keyboard. When, for instance, I start typing in my username on different sites it takes five or six characters before Android picks up on it. With SwiftKey I’d see my username come up pretty quickly. That’s what I’m looking for in a virtual keyboard.
After you download SwiftKey from the Market, setting it up is a breeze. Run the app, and then hit Enable when prompted. That brings you to your Language & keyboard settings page, where you’ll check the SwiftKey Beta box. Click OK on the paranoia-inducing dialog box and then back out. You’ll see another prompt to select the input method. Here you’ll select SwiftKey, of course.
The last step is to select a language module. You can choose from English-US, English-UK, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portugese, or Dutch. The download takes a few seconds, and goes in a snap if you’re running on a Wi-Fi connection. Back out of the SwiftKey options screen (or change them if you want), and you’ll have the option to let the application learn your language usage by analyzing old text messages. That will complete the process.
Since any third party keyboard can potentially put your personal information in jeopardy, I strongly suggest you check out SwiftKey’s privacy policy before downloading and using.
Via TalkAndroid.
