Alternatives to Swype

I still don't understand the love and hype over Swype and similar keyboards. I've tried almost every keyboard known to man and SwiftKey is still my favorite. The word prediction and learning is just too hard to pass up. To each their own I guess.

 

Yep, works great. I like it more than swipe. The word prediction is dead on. T9 that is. Never used swifykey.

 

SwiftKey isn't a "swype" style keyboard but rather a tradional one. I can type just as fast or even faster than Swype with it, and I like it much more.

The word prediction is the best that I've ever seen. Especially after you give it a little time to learn. It's great, I would give it a try if you can.

 

I should probably try this or swype again. I stopped using it because I got to typing so fast that it could not keep up.

 

How long did it take you to get proficient at swype? I think it's kind of fun but I'm pretty slow on it. Seems like i can't find the letters fast enough

 

I loved using swype. But today, I switched over to this app since it was free on Amazon and wanted to try it out. It's just as good as swype, and I like that I don't have to reselect it as my keyboard after a reboot. Stupid bug in swype...

I haven't tried out Swiftkey, but I like these swype-type of keyboards because I can type pretty quickly one-handed. Takes too long for me to tap out words one handed when I'm holding my phone vertically.

 

Yeah, that's my only gripe with swipe-style keyboards. It's definitely easier to text one handed with them but the SwiftKey word prediction is just too amazing to pass up. I liked FlexT9 better than swype though.

 

For those who like Swype type input there is a free alternative that I use almost exclusively:
Slideit

 

Works pretty well. I'm using the free demo keyboard. What's the difference between that and the paid one?

 

FlexT9 is so far superior to swype in every way.. It is buttery smooth
And i am a Swiftkey LOVER.. But this is my new one!!

 

I think this works way better than swype. Agreed! Love it.

 

I just started playing with it, but I really like it so far. It's like the Stock Keyboard, Swype, and SwiftKey had a baby.

 

Now that's a party I want to be at!

 

I had never used Swype before and was skeptical about these types of keyboards, but when a $5 app is free, you get it! I am so happy I did, absolutely love FlexT9! After using it a couple of times, I made sure to get all of my friends to download it and they all love it as well. My husband struggles with anything to do with typing on touch screens, but he was able to pick this up pretty well and loves it too...

 

Now this, is REAL TALK. FlexT9 works waay better than swype.

 

I think the OP originally intended it to be an issue specifically related to the TBOLT not working with Swype properly as Sense doesn't allow you to do certain things. Auto spacing doesn't work when text messaging someone and every time you reboot the phone, you have to select the stock keyboard, and then select the Swype keyboard in order for it to work again.

 

FlexT9 swypes better than swype lol, it's much more accurate. And there is nothing faster than a swype style keyboard, I tried swiftkey and it's not as good. FlexT9 is the real deal.

 

I did "buy" FlexT9 for free the other day from Amazon. Just getting to try it now. Looks very interesting.

I've been used to swype for a while, so there are some things that I don't like about FlexT9. With swype, I liked how you could quickly get the number keypad in a 3x3 layout. I liked how you can do a caps by moving your finger into the upper area after the letter. Also liked how you can do ? and ! by swyping from the ? and ! to the space bar.

What I didn't like about swype is that it auto-added words that I manually pecked out to the dictionary. Looks like FlexT9 does the same. I wind up with things like hmmmm in the dictionary. Also, for example, let's say I can't get it to accept the word "thief" when I swipe it out, so I type it and hit thied on accident. Well, now thied is in my dictionary. I've found that, after a while, with swype, I had so many of those things in there that I had to wipe the dictionary.

On the other hand, I do like the feel of FlexT9. I think I like their word choice method better.

I can live without the ! and ? and caps thing probably.

I wish they had an option to not auto-add to the dictionary. I emailed their support about that.

There's no way to manage the dictionary at all, right?

Anyone been using this for a while? Seems like they've been updating monthly. What kind of things have been added? Do they take user suggestions and implement?

There's no support/user forum, is there?

 

Yes, it's definitely a matter of preference and training. I have a problem using predictive keyboards -- I find them intrusive and distracting from what I'm trying to write, as I have to divide my attention between composing the text and watching the suggestion bar to see if I've typed enough so that the word I want is there. I find myself paying too much attention to the mechanics of entering text and not enough to what I want to say.

When I'm typing on a regular full-size keyboard, I don't think at all about pressing the keys and such; I just think about the words and they appear on the screen, and my brain and fingers take care of the mechanics without any conscious thought. Swype and similar keyboards aren't, obviously, quite as thought-free and mechanical, but I can mentally plug them into the same process. I have to type full words on a regular computer keyboard, so I just do the same thing with Swype/SlideIT/FlexT9 and then just look at what I've written every sentence or so to see if there have been any mistakes. It's much less disruptive to my thought processes than having to watch the suggestion bar continuously to see if the word I'm entering has appeared yet.

I'd say it took me 2-3 weeks before I had calibrated the distance and angle of my key-to-key strokes. Of course, being a touch typist, I knew approximately where the keys were, but getting speed and accuracy really depends on developing the muscle memory to move your finger to the right place instead of just near there.

I've started using FlexT9 exclusively since the Amazon deal, and I like it a lot. I had previously been vacillating between Swype and SlideIT, but for now I'm on FlexT9.

There are things that I miss about Swype. Like LexLuthor, one of those is the numeric keypad; if you hit "123", you get to a qwerty-like keypad with the numbers stretched out across the top and a bunch of other non-alphabetic symbols on the rest of the keys. (It's a lot like the SlideIT alternate keypad.) Interestingly, though, they do have a telephone-style numeric keypad; it comes up when you position the cursor in a numeric field, like a telephone number. You just can't get there when typing regular text. (I've filed an extension request with their technical support to enable use of the telephone-style keypad in non-numeric fields, too; we'll see what happens.)

A major missing piece of functionality is the cursor-movement page you get by tracing from the Swype key to the SYM key. Since I've just changed to a phone that doesn't have a trackball, I'm really missing those cursor arrows. (SlideIT has cursor arrows, too, but they're buried on the fourth page of the alternate keypad and thus not very convenient.)

I do like the ribbon-style suggestions instead of the pop-up that Swype uses, as well as not having to squiggle/loop on double letters and not having to swoop through the apostrophe to get contractions.

There is one bug that I've found: if you put in a left-quote or left parenthesis and then trace a word, FlexT9 inserts a space before the word. Support says it's a known issue and will be fixed in a future release.

No one has mentioned the Dragon Dictation voice transcription. I haven't personally compared it with the built-in Google transcription you get in other keyboards, but it's worked extremely accurately for me, and the online reviews of FlexT9 I've seen have said that it was substantially more accurate than Google.

I used ShapeWriter before Nuance bought the company and took it off the market; it's nice to see what they've done with it, fixing most of the problems I had with it at the time.

It's definitely a worthwhile replacement for Swype, and on a par with SlideIT, in my opinion; I think it's a bit cheaper than SlideIT, too, so I'd probably buy it instead if I were trying to decide between the two of them.

 

I was not condemning you at all, just merely suggesting that's what I felt the OP's intention was. I think you are correct in placing the thread where it it should go.

Your reporting comment is duly noted as well!

Finally, there is indeed a post (at least one from doing a search of "Swype") in the Thunderbolt forum about the issue: http://androidforums.com/htc-thunderbolt/318312-swype-beta-stops-working.html

 

I'm a long-time Swype user and I'm giving FlexT9 a try. Aside from the previously mentioned shortcomings, I really like it. It feels quicker than Swype. The voice dictation is stunningly accurate with my voice; I may never swipe again I wrote a one-page email using the dictation (which makes you do it in chunks) and I was quite impressed how easy it was and how few errors there were, it even picks up proper names, presumably from Contacts.

So far so good...

 

I've been using Shapewriter for a few months and I like it just a tad more than Swype. It's not available on the Market but the apk is still around the Internet.