[Review] Removing Swype -- sick of the bad design

[aburgthing]

Don't you just love Android and the Evo. I used Swype since June, tried the Droid keyboard, liked that, now the Gingerbread keyboard. Depends on my mood, but they all were pretty good to me once you get used 'em.

 

[jeffdlb]

Swype only memorizes passwords if you tap type them in a non-password field, select them, then hit the swype key to add it to the dictionary. No automatic memorizing.

I disagree--passwords are memorized automatically at least in some cases. I just did a test:
(1) Cleared all data from Swype using Android Settings dialog.
(2) Uninstalled Swype.
(3) Downloaded latest beta and reinstalled.
(4) Typed made-up words in a non-password field (fubar, Fringle2010) and verified that they were immediately swipe-able without my having to select and manually add to dictionary.
(4) Typed a fake password (Snozax3) into SplashID password field (which obscures the characters you type) and verified that word was immediately swipe-able in any other field (i.e., the word was written into Swype's custom dictionary).
(5) Tried another fake password containing punctuation (Cukilo6.) in SplashID and found that this one was not memorized.
(6) Tried a fake password on web pages for two banks, and found that it was not memorized.
(7) Tried a fake username on bank web page, and found that it was memorized.

Conclusion:
(A) Swype is smart enough to know that text typed into HTML <input type="password"> fields should not be memorized.
(B) Swype is *not* smart enough to know that alphanumeric text typed into SplashID's password field should not be memorized. SplashID is an encrypted database containing all other passwords, so this is a security hole.
(C) Other non-web applications, including other encrypted password DBs, *may* also have their passwords memorized by Swype (I have not tested).
(D) Swype memorizes usernames on web pages, which is a potential security risk though not as severe as password memorization.

Beyond the password issue, the fact that Swype memorizes everything, even typos, proper nouns and rarely-used words, and then pops up a dialog which tells you that the word you wanted was "hidden" by another word, and then does not even have a button on the dialog to Remove Word Now, is - as I said in my first post - extremely annoying and a sign of bad design. Many people have complained about this to Swype over the past months (e.g., Swype Forum), the fix should be simple, but they have not fixed it.

Swype is in many respects a great app - it's unfortunate that it has these glaring issues.