Most of the threads I found here and elsewhere on the net were a bit out of date, and I had some observations I don't see mentioned in most big reviews. Although in terms of what I "want" to like, Swype is probably the last on this list, I pretty much am forced to rate it highest. I don't really like the look of Swype, I really dislike the lack of a gesture to delete the last word, how it handles symbols, etc. But for practical purposes, it still is best.
Swiftkey: it has two flaws which unfortunately compound. It only offers three suggestions, and there is no way to change this. And, if you have two languages on a latin keyboard there is no way to stop getting suggestions from the other language. This obviously exacerbates the first problem. If you have English and Spanish for example, a lot of the time one of your suggestion slots is wasted on a Spanish word when you are typing in English. Overall, this keyboard is frighteningly intelligent. I can mash out keys as fast as humanly possible and still have 95% + accuracy. The problem is that when you mess up a word, you probably won't see it for a couple of words. Then you have to go back and fix it, which is relatively slow. Because it only shows three suggestions, you can't quickly fix a whole word usually, but rather have to retype it.
TouchPal: this keyboard is very well spoken of. It probably is the best in terms of handling special symbols and numbers (a quick flick up and down on the relevant key produces the symbol or number much faster than a long press), it has a delete word gesture, terrific. The swype detection algorithm is very good, probably a tiny bit worse than Swype. But it's actual word prediction is terrible. For example: if you type in "rsally" into TouchPal, it cannot figure out that you mean "really" despite being a very common word, and despite the fact that s is right beside e (Swype, swiftkey, and stock will all make this correction automatically). This keyboard is (sadly) completely worthless for tap typing whatsoever. Which is sad, because I really wanted to like it. (another negative for me, irrelevant for most people: works more poorly with unusual alphabets/languages than Swype. TouchPal reverses Hebrew predictions, and does not allow swyping for Hebrew).
Swype: surprisingly, although it is "the" swiping keyboard, the latest version of swype allows for very good tap typing. Better than stock in fact. It's word prediction isn't bad either (nowhere near Swiftkey). Overall it lets you enter in text very quickly using two different methods. When a word is wrong, you can go back and tap it, and see a long list of alternate suggestions. While with full concentration and two hands, you can probably get better speeds with Swiftkey, it's much more work, and when you do make a mistake it takes longer to fix. Swype is by far the fastest one handed, and you can type very accurately and at a good speed without working too hard. Swype gets all the big things right, but many of the little things wrong. If you want to delete a word right after entering it, you can easily (just backspace), but if you need to delete two in a row there is no good way (unlike the above two keyboards). Getting symbols and numbers out just isn't as elegant as TouchPal's method.
I might give AIkeyboard (or AItype? something like that) a shot as you can have more than 3 suggestions. However, it uses the cloud for data analysis; the idea of my typing data leaving my phone makes me nervous. Also there is SlideIT, but I haven't heard good things about it overall.
Ultimately I want a keyboard that inputs text well through both swyping and tapping, and at the moment Swype definitely seems to provide the best experience over both.
Am I missing something, or do people here have different experiences? I'd really like to hear about it. Especially TouchPal, I don't know how this keyboard is so highly rated when it seems to not be able to perform the most basic corrections.
Swiftkey: it has two flaws which unfortunately compound. It only offers three suggestions, and there is no way to change this. And, if you have two languages on a latin keyboard there is no way to stop getting suggestions from the other language. This obviously exacerbates the first problem. If you have English and Spanish for example, a lot of the time one of your suggestion slots is wasted on a Spanish word when you are typing in English. Overall, this keyboard is frighteningly intelligent. I can mash out keys as fast as humanly possible and still have 95% + accuracy. The problem is that when you mess up a word, you probably won't see it for a couple of words. Then you have to go back and fix it, which is relatively slow. Because it only shows three suggestions, you can't quickly fix a whole word usually, but rather have to retype it.
TouchPal: this keyboard is very well spoken of. It probably is the best in terms of handling special symbols and numbers (a quick flick up and down on the relevant key produces the symbol or number much faster than a long press), it has a delete word gesture, terrific. The swype detection algorithm is very good, probably a tiny bit worse than Swype. But it's actual word prediction is terrible. For example: if you type in "rsally" into TouchPal, it cannot figure out that you mean "really" despite being a very common word, and despite the fact that s is right beside e (Swype, swiftkey, and stock will all make this correction automatically). This keyboard is (sadly) completely worthless for tap typing whatsoever. Which is sad, because I really wanted to like it. (another negative for me, irrelevant for most people: works more poorly with unusual alphabets/languages than Swype. TouchPal reverses Hebrew predictions, and does not allow swyping for Hebrew).
Swype: surprisingly, although it is "the" swiping keyboard, the latest version of swype allows for very good tap typing. Better than stock in fact. It's word prediction isn't bad either (nowhere near Swiftkey). Overall it lets you enter in text very quickly using two different methods. When a word is wrong, you can go back and tap it, and see a long list of alternate suggestions. While with full concentration and two hands, you can probably get better speeds with Swiftkey, it's much more work, and when you do make a mistake it takes longer to fix. Swype is by far the fastest one handed, and you can type very accurately and at a good speed without working too hard. Swype gets all the big things right, but many of the little things wrong. If you want to delete a word right after entering it, you can easily (just backspace), but if you need to delete two in a row there is no good way (unlike the above two keyboards). Getting symbols and numbers out just isn't as elegant as TouchPal's method.
I might give AIkeyboard (or AItype? something like that) a shot as you can have more than 3 suggestions. However, it uses the cloud for data analysis; the idea of my typing data leaving my phone makes me nervous. Also there is SlideIT, but I haven't heard good things about it overall.
Ultimately I want a keyboard that inputs text well through both swyping and tapping, and at the moment Swype definitely seems to provide the best experience over both.
Am I missing something, or do people here have different experiences? I'd really like to hear about it. Especially TouchPal, I don't know how this keyboard is so highly rated when it seems to not be able to perform the most basic corrections.
