If you are interested to know who is the front-runner in the battle between SwiftKey and Swype and what is the final verdict, then you are on the right page. Let’s get going…
There are two Android keyboards, SwiftKey and Swype, that attract the Android users and confuse them on which one to choose. Both the applications are impressive and attract the users with its amazing features. Google uses the tablet Honeycomb, which is designed by TouchType that makes Android applications like SwiftKey. Let’s look at both the applications in depth before comparing them.
Brief Overview of SwiftKey Technology
SwiftKey keyboards use cloud-based personalization and the concept of artificial intelligence is brought into this small device. The machine has the capability to predict the word that you might type in the keyboard. It can even predict the name of your pet before you actually type it! The wonderful thing about the language engine in the SwiftKey X mobile, is that, it is very intelligent and smart to learn from the kind of words you type in the keyboard and constantly improves its accuracy in its word predictions. It learns from the type of words you use in Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, etc., thus behaving like your personalized device. The learned data will remain stored in your device and even upgrading the software won’t affect the language data but uninstalling will. SwiftKey even suggests punctuation marks like commas, question marks, periods, etc., in your messages. In this way, artificial intelligence programming in this device is made use of.
The additional features of SwiftKey are attractive keyboard layouts and language packs that cover most of the major European languages. Even though SwiftKey is known for its word predictions, don’t expect that it can predict website URLs and email addresses on its own. Android devices use SwiftKey technology and it is very popular in the market. This is what Jonathan Reynolds (CEO and co-founder of TouchType) has to say: “SwiftKey has already been a remarkable success on Android; it’s been downloaded more than a million times and is used to send over 100 million messages each month”.
Brief Overview of Swype Technology
Swype doesn’t help in predicting words, but increases the speed of typing by just swiping the letters in the keyboard and not taking away the finger, when you move from one letter to another. This can surely save your time of typing words and can increase your input speed. One of the useful features of Swype is that, you can add email addresses, phone numbers, etc., to the dictionary and make it appear in the screen without putting any effort to type every time you use it. Erasing and retyping the word is also made very easy by double tapping on the word. When you start typing a message, in between you get a hidden message which acts as a reminder, indicating the time (e.g. today) when you previously used that particular word. This is annoying, many times, and the only way to stop these hidden messages is to delete the particular word in the dictionary. The hidden messages, mostly appear for texts that are not there in the dictionary; for example, name of your friend. Another problem with Swype is that, you have to search for the keys without lifting your fingers, for that you need to be a good speller. If not, it will just increase your typing time. Multiple language pack is also available in Swype.
What Sets Them Apart?
Keyboard Layout: SwiftKey has a standard QWERTY layout whereas Swype has different keyboard layouts.
Cost: SwiftKey is available in the markets at the cost of US $3.99. Swype, on the other hand, cannot be downloaded directly from the market but only through private beta.
Typing Speed: Some reviews and speed tests reveal that Swype is faster than SwiftKey, but the difference is minor.
Both Swype and SwiftKey are HTC applications and these applications are very popular among smartphone users and they are highly competitive in the Android markets. At the beginning, few of you might not feel very comfortable with the devices, but later you will surely love it! Both are equally good and it solely depends on your choice of which one to buy.