Do you use the swipe to type feature on your phone?
Is this how most people type on mobile these days, drawing lines all over a keyboard instead of tapping the individual keys? I've never had an iPhone so I don't even know if they can do this natively, but I know you can switch keyboards at least, so it should still be an option if not.
I bounce back and forth. I’m faster using two thumbs and tapping but if I’m typing one handed swipe is far superior.
Same, but even when I type one-handed, I also bounce back and forth at each word. Swiping gets short words wrong more often, but more rarely long words.
So for instance, for “I am on vacation”, the only word I’d swipe when one-handed is “vacation”. If I swiped “am”, I’d probably have a 50-50 chance of getting “an”; which may or may not self-correct later, depending on what else it got wrong.
Exact same. Two thumbs when typing longer responses or when both hands are free. One handed always swiping unless I need to type an uncommon word or name.
TIL the creator of T9 predictive text also invented Swype
Damn, talk about being on a roll!
T9 was the shit
I still use Swype somehow? Not sure how the app is still working after it was acquired, and I thought, abandoned.
Have tried many other swipe capable keyboards and none compare for me for some reason (even though quality of Swype recognition has gone down noticeably over the years).
I thought it was just me. I swear the version of Swype that came with an ancient Motorola running Android 4 worked better than the version I use now.
Android user here. Swipe style entry now for maybe 8 years? So much faster than individual tapping.
I never got used to swipe. Though it works quite well. Maybe I should use it more.
Both, I use swipe as my go-to method but if it doesn't write the proper word I tend to erase it and type it one letter after the other (which happened 3 times as I wrote this comment).
This is the way! Also what a lot of others already commented, that it's more smooth to use with one hand. For me it's also nice to use, when it comes to switching languages. English is my second language and with swipe it feels like the autocorrect works pretty good, because it is more forgiving if you don't know exactly how the word is actually written. A small idea about how the word is constructed is enough.
same, but with more mistypes, as the Ukrainian language has all these word endings that make words longer and harder for the keyboard to guess.
This is very common if you switch languages often. Half the time I'm typing something in spanish and want an english word it jumps the gun and outputs a word I've never ever used, and viceversa. That said, I still prefer swipe.
I never could get into it. I type like it's a keyboard I actually don't even look at the keyboard I am looking at the input field and glancing down if I have to. Swipe sucks for me and is way less accurate than my method and I actually have to focus on the keyboard just to have worse WPM. I also get pissed off cuz if my hands are at all wet the typing tries to swipe.
P.s. it's hilarious to me that this long existing android feature is treated like some unique cool thing when Apple finally adopts it 10 years later. Like wireless and fast charging. But yeah I'm lame cuz I have a green bubble and don't use stupid personalized emoji thing
You should be able to turn off the swipe inputs for the kb entirely, at least i could on mine (the accidental activation was annoying me too). You can probably find it searching for swipe in the settings.
Thank you! Idk why I never thought to do that before lol
I use it all the time, it's incredibly convenient. I've been using it for years now though, granted. The most annoying thing is when you have to go back and type out a word letter by letter because it's nowhere close to what you were looking for -- but that's also the alternative of not using Swype. So... Shrug
I use it almost exclusively. It's not without its faults, but it does better for me than pressing individual keys.
Me too. Fingers too big for those little tiny keys.
Yeah occasionally when I really wanna make sure autocorrect doesn't fuck around I will hit individual keys but otherwise it's swipe all the time
Yes, that's my preferred method
The google gboard has it built in for android. It's handy when using with one hand
Ah, yes. For one handed typing. It's probably pretty accurate if it's just learning off of the few phrases you type one handed. I'm sure it's the same few pretty frequently.
From the early days of Android, Found a add-on keyboard called Swype... Never turned back, prolly 13 years ago now?
Yeah, same, I think I had a paid version of Swype way back when and used that until they integrated it into Android. That being said, there are some words I will type in letter by letter, because some longer words require a lot of swiping, or won't be recognized easily. Autodefenestration for example.
The feature has been on the default Android keyboard for at least 8 years now. You just need to enable it.
I really liked Swype but I used to have really crappy phones. Back in the day I remember it could take about 10 seconds to even show up.
At first I never used it, always thought typing with two fingers was the fastest (and actually got me the result I wanted).
Nowadays I swipe 99% of the time on my Android phone and it is a lot faster. Especially when your phone learns the words you like to use. It's not perfect of course and you will have to correct some words down the line (it still sometimes refuses to swipe "Fuck"), but overall I'm faster with it.
Also super comfy for long and complex words when you just roughly swipe it and get the full word written there without errors.
Overall though I prefer to touch type on a proper keyboard on the PC, that's still the fastest :)
The inability to get duck to move up the list is insane. I'm blows my ducking mind everytime autocorrect rears it's stupid ducking head like I'm a mother ducking child that can't curse via text.
I'm a 40 year old man for ducks sake. Let me use a ducking word.
Swiped on my stupid ducking Gboard.
I do now. I've been using OpenBoard for a few years after ditching the Google spyware keyboard, and recently I've learned about a fork of OB with gesture typing. It's perfect if I have just one hand available.
Oh nice! Will try this out thanks for sharing!
Thanks for linking! Currently using OpenBoard to get away from Swiftkey's privacy issues, but OpenBoard's lack of swipe has been a hard adjustment. FlorisBoard is en route to swipe tho it's still very much in beta (but feels like alpha with the current implementation)
I'm not optimistic about Floris. A while ago they've made the decision to completely rewrite everything - a common occurrence among small-time FOSS projects, and almost always results in the project completely dying (or in a "better" case scenario, coming out of the ordeal as only a shell of its former self). Floris Board... Has not had any receipt in a while.
But fortunately with this fork of OB existing, there isn't much need for it anymore. It would be nice to have a selection of modern FOSS keyboards, but, ah well.
Does it work with password manager apps like Google keyboard does?
Idk I don't use those.
I've swiped since the early days of Swype. This forked version of OB let's you swipe only on the English layout. Swipe doesn't work for the other two languages I use. And English isn't my main one. Don't see much development for the keyboard either, so I'll probably have to wait a long time to use it as a daily driver. So, sadly I'm stuck with GB for now...
You can try AnySoftKeyboard or FlorisBoard, but both are more experimental than OB the commercial products.
I've been using SwiftKey since like 2010 when I got my first smart phone that didn't have a keyboard (rip HTC Z).
I feel like the accuracy has gone down over the years. Also, Gboard has had an issue for a bit now where it will show that I'm swiping one long word but insert a different one when I let go.
Loved my HTC Z. I could type so fast on that thing
Annoyingly, my PKB stopped responding in patches, and they were out of production so they replaced it with a Sensation XL.
Flogged it when I got it, and went back to BlackBerry.
This Samsung Galaxy Flip 3 is pretty much the first touchscreen only phone I've had in about fifteen years.
It often doesn't work well for very short words, or uncommon words and whenever I have to stop swiping to tap out individual words I feel like a time traveler being forced to use pre-historic tools.
Reassuring to see the love for Swype in here. I'm still using Swype on Android. I've tried many other keyboards, gboard comes closest but still lacks some of the quality of life little features from Swype.
i used to when i use pixel. Gboard is so good at it. iPhone stock keyboard is shit
Gboard is available on iOS isn't it? I found it on the App Store at least.
You can only basically change the skin on an iphone keyboard. Downloading another keyboard still uses the apple keyboard under the hood. That's why all Apple keyboards are such trash compared to Android.
Same with your browser. You can download a new browser, but it's still Safari.
iOS keyboard is pretty good in iOS 17. The iPhone's keyboard on iOS 17 leverages a transformer model, which OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT) uses in their own language models, to learn from what you type on your keyboard to better predict what you might say next, whether it's a name, phrase or curse word.
Absolutely. Been doing that since my first Nexus phone. Without it, I find the mobile keyboard extremely unwieldy.
I'm on Android and I swipe mostly unless autocorrect doesn't give me the word I wanted. Very good for one-handed typing.
I don't understand how with all the ai we have not it can't auto correct properly with the context of the sentence, but I still can't use letter typing as an alternative, it's too slow
One handed and to a degree even without looking. I checked before sending, but this text right here has been written without looking at the keyboard.
It's the only way I could have typed anything of substance for the past 2 months with a fractured elbow.
Do people NOT use it?!
I've never used it before but so far it seems slower than just typing with my fingers. Too used to using two hands to type I guess.
I'm surprised how many people don't in this thread.
I can already type pretty fast on my phone. Throw in the suggested word completion and I don't really feel like I need to use it.
I tried using it for a few months and just kept getting wildly inaccurate predictions. It wasn't any faster or easier so I just continue typing normally. Plus the multi-language recognition isn't good enough in my experience.
Yep, it's so good you can even type without looking at the keyboard, like I just did.
The only time I'm using it is when I have to type with one hand only.
Years, it's then oily way I tyre on phoney any Moore.
Jokes, but it really is almost the only way I type on my phone anymore.
That's how most my messages look before I fix them when I type normal.
Ish. I go back and forth between swiping and typing for no obvious reason that I can discern.
Yes since when ever Swype was released.
When I got a pixel 7 pro, I was very sad to find out Swype dragon had been discontinued. The APK are still around, but I'm not sure I'm ready to root and or put a custom OS my pixel yet to get it installed.
I've been going back and forward between gboard and swift key. Both are orders of magnitude worse than Swype was at recognising traces for longer words. Blows my mind how Google and Microsoft still can't build something as good as decade old Swype.
Why do you need root or custom os for a keyboard apk tho, did you meant to say it's not supported on latest android versions?
I think so. I tried to install a few different versions and got errors saying it wasn't able to be installed. Assume Swype was a 32 bit app, which you can't install on pixel 7 without doing away with the stock Android.
I have used swipe keyboard since 2011.
I switch between swiping and typing. It works pretty well most of the time.
That was the only way I type on my android phone with GBoard but now with KDE mobile I am back in the dark ages.
I use it untill I need to type a name. Then I type normally and forget about swipe typing exists...
... I then start using it again the next week
Accurate
Sometimes when I can't use both hands. Otherwise, I prefer typing.
GBoard is great for swipe typing and a must have on all my phones. I also like the one-handed mode which lets you shrink and move the keyboard for easier reaching. I usually have it small, slightly higher up, and on the right side so I can type without having to stretch my thumb and can keep a firm grip on my popsocket. Recently sent an entire text message without looking at my phone while walking down the street.
One handed or laying down or just lazy = swipe
I've tried it but I hate it. It feels weird. Unnatural. Unintuitive. I would also prefer a real, physical keyboard to a touch screen.
I've used it for several years now, and I could never go back. It makes me shudder to think of trying to type out words by tapping on individual letters again. Swiping is so much faster.
Type.
Swipe is weird and I don't like it.
I use it all the time, but I've recently got a new phone and it's taking a while for the autocorrect to get used to my swiping, so it has a fair few mistakes currently
I was an early adopter of T9 typing on my Nokia back in the day. When I finally got a smartphone, I found a keyboard app that had T9 as an option and used that. When Swype first came out, I couldn't believe that another typing system could actually beat the speed and ease of T9 typing.
I've always preferred to type in full words and sentences, and I'm a good speller, so most of the reasons other people don't like swipe typing don't apply to me.
I'm typing using a wild mix of swiping and typing...
I'm bilingual and the English keyboard is way better than the German... I have to type way more if I write in German. Which is quite annoying - therefore I tend to use a lot of English vocab when writing with my family because it is just plain faster.
Well I didn't use it before but Ur post made me try it out and ducking wow how well it works is actually amazing
Well let's be honest it not better when you are typing with two hands... But with one hand it's actually looks daddy and convince are r to
That's not what I wanted to say...guess its not perfect ..
Just glad you're ok. Thought it was a stroke at first.
It's okay Daddy :)
Youngabendpoint-Vergleich. Obstbindebroich-Angebotsname K k plomo
Ok á officinal a. Na it's not for me I think. Waits I think I works!
This was a wild one
It just knows what you type one handed.
For years now, and people are still amazed to watch me to it.
Same, mostly my iphone friends. I don't know why fewer of them seem to use it.
iPhone didn't have native swipe keyboard until 2019. I'm guessing a lot of people had iPhones for years without having a native swipe option so they just never bothered with it. I'm definitely in that category. Honestly I totally forgot it was even a thing until reading this post just now. After years of practice I'm crazy fast with two thumb typing, I can only imagine swipe would slow me down to the point of irritation.
Nope, typing this with buttons on a virtual keyboard right now! I mainly use a desktop for most of the day, so I just prefer using the same system on mobile too.
No. I tried it but I wasn't patient enough to get it calibrated to my needs.
Almost always. I never really got the hang of tapping -- I don't write all that often on my phone, so I don't have the accuracy down. Swyping lets me use my general knowledge of the keyboard to make up for my poor accuracy.
I use it when I only have 1 free hand 😶🌫️
Yep, super helpful for one handed use, especially with how big phones are these days
Always, it’s faster
Constantly! Probably like 30%-40% of my typing is one-handed by swiping.
Test test. Okay it's kinda faster... I'm gonna try to use it more often!
I started out using the Swype app back before it was a common feature. It works well for me and I've been using it ever since. The learning curve is not steep and it speeds up my typing back at least a factor of two.
Good ol' Fruit Ninja typing. Love it!
I started using it with SwiftKey and when that went shit started using it with Gboard so probably 10 years...? If I have to do it cave man style it feels impossibly slow. My wife still types each individual letter out quite happily.
It's ironic because I used to have a BlackBerry back in the day and thought I wouldn't be able to cope without a physical keyboard