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Nuance Discontinues Swype Keyboard for iOS and Android

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macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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After over three years on the App Store, developer Nuance has decided to discontinue the gesture-based Swype Keyboard apps for both iOS and Android devices. The company's announcement of the iOS app's discontinuation came earlier this month, but it's only just begun to garner attention due to a confirmation of the Android app's removal given to XDA Developers.

swype_hero.jpg

On Android, the company discontinued its Swype+Dragon for Android keyboard app, which combined Swype's unique swipe-to-type feature with Dragon's voice dictation. On iOS, it appears that one version of Dragon remains on the App Store in the United States, called Dragon Anywhere. Attempts to search for "Swype Keyboard," however, do confirm the third-party keyboard app is gone from the App Store, with results surfacing rival company apps like SwiftKey.

According to Nuance, the company's decision to shut down Swype was a "necessary" move, granting it the ability to focus on selling AI solutions in the enterprise market. Recently, Nuance has been working on voice dictation software for medical professionals, as well as placing it within vehicles.
Nuance will no longer be offering the Swype keyboard on iOS app store. We're sorry to leave the direct-to-consumer keyboard business, but this change is necessary to allow us to concentrate on developing our AI solutions for sale directly to businesses.

We hope you enjoyed using Swype, we sure enjoyed working with the Swype community.
Click to expand...
Although Swype is no more, users still have access to third-party iOS keyboard apps like Gboard, SwiftKey, Fleksy, Grammarly, and more. In terms of functionality, SwiftKey is the app that aligns most with Swype's swipe-to-text abilities, letting users enter text one handed using the SwiftKey Flow feature.

Swype-search-no-more.jpg
A current search for Swype on the iOS App Store​


When Swype launched in the fall of 2014 alongside iOS 8, it was one of the few keyboard apps that did not require "full access" to the iPhone to function, limiting some of its feature sets but providing better user privacy.

iOS 8 updated iPhones and iPads with the ability to support third-party keyboards on a systemwide basis, and at the time Fleksy, SwiftKey, and Swype jumped to the top of the paid and free iOS App Store charts in multiple countries. Although Fleksy has had a rocky development history, Swype is the first of these initial keyboard apps to see its development discontinued completely.

Article Link: Nuance Discontinues Swype Keyboard for iOS and Android
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/02/20/nuance-discontinues-swype/
Sleaka J

Sleaka J

macrumors regular
Mar 5, 2015
122
98
No tears from me. They consistently fell behind in features and updates. New versions of iOS would cause issues and it would take them too many months to fix it when another version of iOS just released after their update would cause problems all over again. That and the placement of that stupid button in the bottom left.

It was good when it was released in 2014, but those days are long gone.
 
gim

gim

macrumors 6502
Jul 27, 2014
441
953
bartvk said:
What is very nice, is that Swiftkey supports entering multiple languages without switching. This is an incredible feature for me, and I hope that Apple will soon support it natively.
Click to expand...

The native Apple keyboard has multi language support since iOS 10.
But yes, I'm also a very satisfied SwiftKey user.
 
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maflynn

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,489
43,413
I tried swype, and just didn't work for me. I use swiftkey and it works well
 
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RedKite

RedKite

macrumors regular
Dec 19, 2017
172
546
Forgot that you could use 3rd party keyboards on iOS. Lol. Which is silly because I used either Swiftkey or Swype when it launched and quite enjoyed it..... but soon removed it due to some privacy issues IIRC.
 
JosephAW

JosephAW

macrumors 603
May 14, 2012
5,963
7,916
That's okay. I can reinstall it anytime I want by using iTunes and sync the app that I downloaded. (Unless your one of those people who trusted Apple with your app purchases and found out that Apple threw you under the bus and you no longer have the app sync tab in your iTunes.)
 
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T

tkukoc

Cancelled
Sep 16, 2014
1,533
1,915
If only 3rd party keyboards weren't so slow.. but that's an IOS problem not a particular keyboard app problem. Swype was decent, swiftkey works well.. but in the end they are all pretty slow.
 
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rorschach

rorschach

macrumors 68020
Jul 27, 2003
2,272
1,856
JosephAW said:
That's okay. I can reinstall it anytime I want by using iTunes and sync the app that I downloaded. (Unless your one of those people who trusted Apple with your app purchases and found out that Apple threw you under the bus and you no longer have the app sync tab in your iTunes.)
Click to expand...

So can I.

You can download discontinued apps from the purchase history section of the App Store at any time. Just downloaded Swype. Heck, I can still download the iPhone 4 bumper case app.
 
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Chupa Chupa

Chupa Chupa

macrumors G5
Jul 16, 2002
14,835
7,396
To me this is the biggest single problem buying products that depend on 3rd party servers. The service can shut down tomorrow and over night your hardware or app becomes a door stop or dead space. Or the service can change TOS and remove features, often with minimal or worthless compensation.
 
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IGI2

IGI2

macrumors 6502a
May 6, 2015
553
524
gim said:
The native Apple keyboard has multi language support since iOS 10.
But yes, I'm also a very satisfied SwiftKey user.
Click to expand...
And what you missed in the post you're commenting is that SwiftKey has a multilanguage support WITHOUT switching keyboards.

I can write a polskie słowo or an english word. <-- with a single keyboard without thinking about the language.
 
gim

gim

macrumors 6502
Jul 27, 2014
441
953
IGI2 said:
And what you missed in the post you're commenting is that SwiftKey has a multilanguage support WITHOUT switching keyboards.

I can write a polskie słowo or an english word. <-- with a single keyboard without thinking about the language.
Click to expand...

No, I have not missed that, Mr. Smarty pants.
The native iOS keyboard has the same exact feature since iOS 10.
 
IGI2

IGI2

macrumors 6502a
May 6, 2015
553
524
lucascampelo said:
https://www.cultofmac.com/441836/how-to-set-up-multilingual-typing-in-ios-10/
Click to expand...
gim said:
No, I have not missed that, Mr. Smarty pants.
The native iOS keyboard has the same exact feature since iOS 10.
Click to expand...
Well, guys you didn't read it carefully enough (there is no Polish)
Zrzut ekranu 2018-02-20 o 17.31.28.png


Polish is not to be found here as well:
IMG_1701.PNG



And those Swype/ SwiftKey has Polish from the very beginning of their existence.
[doublepost=1519144601][/doublepost]
gim said:
No, I have not missed that, Mr. Smarty pants.
The native iOS keyboard has the same exact feature since iOS 10.
Click to expand...
So you missed that I wrote some polskie słowa and English ones ; )
 
gim

gim

macrumors 6502
Jul 27, 2014
441
953
justperry said:
Guess what, it doesn't really work, I type in three languages, iOS multi language keyboard input sucks.
Click to expand...

IGI2 said:
Well, guys you didn't read it carefully enough (there is no Polish)
View attachment 751863

Polish is not to be found here as well:
View attachment 751865


And those Swype/ SwiftKey has Polish from the very beginning of their existence.
[doublepost=1519144601][/doublepost]
So you missed that I wrote some polskie słowa and English ones ; )
Click to expand...

Maybe you two have missed one or two things when you first quoted my post.

I've never claimed that the automatic detection works as well as SwiftKey's.
I also didn't say that there is every language available. I only wrote that it is not true that the native iOS keyboard does not have this feature at all. It does.
 
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IGI2

IGI2

macrumors 6502a
May 6, 2015
553
524
gim said:
Maybe you two have missed one or two things when you first quoted my post.

I've never claimed that the automatic detection works as well as SwiftKey's.
I also didn't say that there is every language available. I only wrote that it is not true that the native iOS keyboard does not have this feature at all. It does.
Click to expand...
Well, that's the reality check. If I'm getting asked if Apple Maps has transit maps I say no, because in my reality no.

Same situation here.

If you're asked if McDonalds has waiters you would say no. Why do you care if there are waiters in Poland or not?

My bad I haven't mention the language. Have a good day, sir!

But Apple should get used to this treatment as it is a global company and they have Polish website (https://www.apple.com/pl/) and they sell in Poland.
So Apple Poland hasn't introduced multi language support in keyboard yet : )
 
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