Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

ChrisTX

macrumors 68030
Dec 30, 2009
2,690
54
Texas
While I love using Swype on my GS3. I can honestly say I've never made so many typing mistakes on a smartphone in my life as I do on the GS3. I'm a fairly rapid typer on the iPhone but with Android it's all slowmo unless I'm happy with spelling, and grammar errors which is not my style. SwiftKey3 is terrible, and even Swype causes me to make mistakes. The only keyboard I've found to be flawless like iOS was the Jelly Bean keyboard. But I hate the warning messages you get say that they could be collecting personal data such as cc#'s, Internet passwords, etc...Seems kind of sketchy to me. I love Android, but they keyboard situation is one area that to this day still frustrates me.
 

onthecouchagain

macrumors 604
Mar 29, 2011
7,382
2
While I love using Swype on my GS3. I can honestly say I've never made so many typing mistakes on a smartphone in my life as I do on the GS3. I'm a fairly rapid typer on the iPhone but with Android it's all slowmo unless I'm happy with spelling, and grammar errors which is not my style. SwiftKey3 is terrible, and even Swype causes me to make mistakes. The only keyboard I've found to be flawless like iOS was the Jelly Bean keyboard. But I hate the warning messages you get say that they could be collecting personal data such as cc#'s, Internet passwords, etc...Seems kind of sketchy to me. I love Android, but they keyboard situation is one area that to this day still frustrates me.

Swiftkey 3 is terrible? How so? Genuinely curious. Cause I'm a big keyboard fanatic and in my experience, Swiftkey 3 is phenomenal and easily bests the iOS and Android stock keyboards, and any other keyboard I've used (I've used them all: Thumb keyboard, Smartkeyboard Pro, Better Keyboard, etc.)

Also, not sure what warning you're talking about.
 

onthecouchagain

macrumors 604
Mar 29, 2011
7,382
2
Flow is great. I'm typing with it now. Swiping is pretty accurate. As good as swipe I would say. The non space bar typing isn't as reliable though. But it is still beta. It's nice to be able to switch right back to thumbing too.

Flow is having a lot of trouble getting "it's" for me though.

Cool beta so far.

Ultimately going to wait for it to come out of beta. For now it'd a nice alternative especially during one hand use.
 
Last edited:

onthecouchagain

macrumors 604
Mar 29, 2011
7,382
2
I can't get swift key 3 to do sentences without errors.

What phone are you on? Also are you giving Swiftkey a chance to learn how you type? I think Swiftkey prediction feature is actually a bit overrated so I wouldn't entirely rely on it. Once in a while it'll predict and finish the rest of your sentences for you and those moments are great but most of the time it won't.

What you should try to do is have it learn as much as it can from your typing and just allow the auto correction to do its thing. It's by far the best auto correction system out there. I honestly have trouble typoing. It gets what I mean no matter how crazily I thumb or how fast I type 99% of the time.

Also check your settings. You can make it suit your typing style. For example "accuracy" vs "rapid" typing.

This entire message was thumbed out from my phone using Swiftkey. Very effortlessly.
 

ReanimationN

macrumors 6502a
Sep 7, 2011
724
0
Australia
SwiftKey would never work with Boat Browser when I tried it. It may have been fixed since, but it was a dealbreaker when I tried it, as it refused to autocorrect anything I'd type in the browser (and I didn't want to ditch the browser). I dumped it and went back to the stock Jelly Bean keyboard (and all its frustrations).
 

mattopotamus

macrumors G5
Jun 12, 2012
14,666
5,879
I actually really like the IOS keyboard....when I had an android phone I looked for knock offs, but could never find a good one. While it may not let you add words to your own dictionary, it learns what you type and stops auto correcting those words.
 

ChrisTX

macrumors 68030
Dec 30, 2009
2,690
54
Texas
Swiftkey 3 is terrible? How so? Genuinely curious. Cause I'm a big keyboard fanatic and in my experience, Swiftkey 3 is phenomenal and easily bests the iOS and Android stock keyboards, and any other keyboard I've used (I've used them all: Thumb keyboard, Smartkeyboard Pro, Better Keyboard, etc.)

Also, not sure what warning you're talking about.

I make tons of spelling, and grammar mistakes with SwiftKey3. Unwanted button presses, and just messy overall layout of the keyboard make it a mess for me. Not a fan of the clutter on the keys like numbers, pronunciation marks on the keys etc. I know a lot of people love that keyboard but it was a mess for me. I used it for 2 weeks before I found Swype.
And as far as the warning message goes. Every Android keyboard upon installation gives a warning about the keyboard potentially logging data, and key strokes.


I can't get swift key 3 to do sentences without errors.
THIS!
 

Beeplance

macrumors 68000
Jul 29, 2012
1,564
500
Guess I'm one of those that are too used to the iPhone keyboard. Almost always certain to make mistakes when typing on an android keyboard. :p
 

FlatlinerG

macrumors 6502a
Dec 21, 2011
711
5
Ontario, Canada
Seriously, how lazy are you that you're complaining that you have to lift your thumb to message any one of your friends almost instantly using your $700 cell phone.

First world problems much?
 

mattopotamus

macrumors G5
Jun 12, 2012
14,666
5,879
Seriously, how lazy are you that you're complaining that you have to lift your thumb to message any one of your friends almost instantly using your $700 cell phone.

First world problems much?

You do realize this entire forum is first world problems?
 

onthecouchagain

macrumors 604
Mar 29, 2011
7,382
2
I make tons of spelling, and grammar mistakes with SwiftKey3. Unwanted button presses, and just messy overall layout of the keyboard make it a mess for me. Not a fan of the clutter on the keys like numbers, pronunciation marks on the keys etc. I know a lot of people love that keyboard but it was a mess for me. I used it for 2 weeks before I found Swype.

Unwanted button presses? Not sure how that happens...

Having punctuations on the keys is one of the best features. It allows for faster access to symbols/punctuations.

Oh well. Fair enough. Glad you found a more suiting alternative. Choices are nice. :)
 

daveathall

macrumors 68020
Aug 6, 2010
2,379
1,410
North Yorkshire
I am not a big texter and really didn't find much wrong with the iOS keyboard, once I moved to Android I didn't like the stock keyboard of the SGS3 but I would find it very difficult going back to iOS after using Swiftkey, Swype, Jelly Bean Swype and now Swiftkey Flow. I can text much faster and with greater accuracy than I ever could before.
 

mattopotamus

macrumors G5
Jun 12, 2012
14,666
5,879
I do like the way, I think it was swiftkey 3, ask you what type of texter you are. I use two thumbs and rely on auto correct
 

cynics

macrumors G4
Jan 8, 2012
11,959
2,154
There's a coincidentally relevant article on PhoneArena today: "Damn You Auto Correct Picsk 2012's 11 Funniest Texts"

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Damn-You-Auto-Correct-picks-2012s-11-funniest-texts_id37384#11-

These days, most of these are faked, but don't forget what keyboard gave birth to this internet phenom. That's right, the iOS keyboard. The one that still hasn't changed.

Add siri's awesome dictation to the equation and you are asking for trouble.

uje7usab.jpg


She knows me all to well....
 

spyguy10709

macrumors 65816
Apr 5, 2010
1,005
644
One Infinite Loop, Cupertino CA
I have just discovered the swipe keyboard option on my Galaxy Note 2. This is so much better than pecking at the keyboard with my thumbs, especially when typing with one hand. On my iPhone, I could never do any meaningful typing with one hand because it was so slow and cumbersome to keep lifting my thumb. Yet another thing that Apple does that makes no sense and is cumbersome. Android just does it better than Apple for usability and common sense.

(GS1 with CM10 btw) With swype the fastest I can get is about 30 wpm. With android stock it's about 24-5, with the iPhone 5 it's 41.

All I can say. With one thumb, swype is extremely good. But my thumb doesn't reach the other side of the Note 2... so that's lost on me in that case.
 

3bs

macrumors 603
May 20, 2011
5,434
24
Dublin, Ireland
Flow is great. I'm typing with it now. Swiping is pretty accurate. As good as swipe I would say. The non space bar typing isn't as reliable though. But it is still beta. It's nice to be able to switch right back to thumbing too.

Flow is having a lot of trouble getting "it's" for me though.

Cool beta so far.

Ultimately going to wait for it to come out of beta. For now it'd a nice alternative especially during one hand use.

I'm having the same problem with "it's" it never gets it.
 

L!veW!r3

macrumors newbie
Dec 5, 2012
9
0
Durban, South Africa.
Think "horrible" is a li'l out of line. "Lacking" or "wanting" could do better to convey a reputable argument. Notwithstanding, I believe "extra mural" features on any handheld/handset/mobile (such as MMS, SMS, EMAIL, INTERNET) and their interface, are just extras, useful extras. It's still a telephone. "Hello darling", "Hello babes". "Can we talk about our afternoon excursion?", "I'm gettin into a meetin in 5minutes, if you may please text me. I'll read and respond to it later my love.". I use an iPad for most of typing and editing and find it easy to use considering that I've been typing all my life. BUT, I find texting my wife easier with the use of Siri. Try iOS 6 (or later), you'll get my point. However, I love my wife's Swype keyboard on her Nexus!
 

ChrisTX

macrumors 68030
Dec 30, 2009
2,690
54
Texas
Unwanted button presses? Not sure how that happens...

Having punctuations on the keys is one of the best features. It allows for faster access to symbols/punctuations.

Oh well. Fair enough. Glad you found a more suiting alternative. Choices are nice. :)

Well for some reason in SwiftKey I tend to insert a lot of random periods, which tend to drive me nuts. But otherwise choice definitely is good. I want to try the new SwiftKey flow, and see how that works. That one is next.
 

matttye

macrumors 601
Mar 25, 2009
4,957
32
Lincoln, England
It's very intuitive and there's not really anything to learn. You just type how you would normally type but instead of lifting your fingers between keys, you just do it in one motion. It's not like learning t9 or something.

Disagree - there's a different method to it. If you start swiping towards a key, but then dither, you can confuse the keyboard. Like someone else said, you kinda have to "plot your route."
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.