UPDATE! Today only, SwiftKey X is free on the Amazon Appstore! Normally a $3.99 purchase.
The fastest and most advanced keyboard for Android, SwiftKey, just got better with SwiftKey X. SwiftKey is an Android keyboard replacement, the first that introduced the idea of next-word prediction and analyzing your e-mail and SMS messages to detect your own word and grammar patterns.
But is it really the best keyboard for Android right now? I think so. Read on past the break to find out why.
Next Word Prediction
I believe this is the only smartphone keyboard that does this. We all know all smartphone keyboards try to guess the word you are typing so you can quickly choose it and move on. But what if you haven’t typed anything yet, or finished a word or a sentence? SwiftKey utilizes this moment to present three possible words that frequently follow the previous. What this boils down to is that you’ll rarely have to type small words like “a”, “of”, “the”, or “am” ever again — just touch the word.
Personal Pattern Pre-analysis
Most virtual keyboards have a learning mechanism that store and give priority to words you use frequently — it learns as you use it. SwiftKey goes a step further and offers to scan all of your e-mail and text messages, and even Facebook messages, to retroactively learn your typing patterns which immediately puts it ahead of every other smartphone keyboard. You can start typing super fast without waiting through any “learning” period — and of course it will learn the more you use it, too.
Arrow Buttons
In the past, many Android phones had a track ball or trackpad to move the text cursor around, in addition to touching the screen. Well now it seems the trackball is no more, leaving users just with the touchscreen to position the cursor. To assist, SwiftKey can optionally display arrow buttons to move the cursor precisely.
Drawback: HTC Sense comes with a nice iPhone style longpress to bring up a magnified cursor navigation box, but it seems the box closes immediately when going from one word to the next if you’re using SwiftKey. That means you won’t be able to use this nice HTC feature.
The app is $3.99 for Android 2.1 and up phones, and $4.99 for Tablets.
View in Android Market
