The point about third party keyboards...

[Max(IT)]

I'm using Swype on a regular basis and I'm quite upset about it. It's generally accurate and fast, especially using English dictionary (in Italian it's much less accurate), but its reliability is very low. The app crashes quite often, and many times the keyboard messed things up , with jerky behavior and wrong keyboard layout. It happens on both my iPad and iPhone, more frequently with the iPad to be honest.
In several months, no serious updates (it's a paid app!), no improvements.

What's the status about third party keyboards on the market? Is Swype just a bad product? What's your experience?

 

[mjschabow]

3rd party keyboards were a great idea in theory but until they have the same functionality and reliability of the stock keyboard, I'm not wasting my time on these keyboards. Now, if the stock keyboard got swipe functionality, then that would be the best case scenario.

 

[maflynn]

What's your experience?

Its been generally positive, I've come across some bugs but I find swype allows me to increase my typing speed which is the intent.

I do believe how apple implemented the APIs/system is the cause of some of the headaches. It feels like its bolted on as an afterthought and as such it behaves less well then its Android counterparts.

 

[Max(IT)]

3rd party keyboards were a great idea in theory but until they have the same functionality and reliability of the stock keyboard, I'm not wasting my time on these keyboards. Now, if the stock keyboard got swipe functionality, then that would be the best case scenario.

Stock keyboards with Swype support would be my choice, maybe in iOS 9.

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Its been generally positive, I've come across some bugs but I find swype allows me to increase my typing speed which is the intent.

I do believe how apple implemented the APIs/system is the cause of some of the headaches. It feels like its bolted on as an afterthought and as such it behaves less well then its Android counterparts.

Actually my Android experience isn't any better.
When I speak about a nearly perfect Swype implementation, I'm speaking about Windows phone 8.1

 

[gordon1234]

The majority of bugs in third-party keyboards can be traced to a buggy API. Until Apple fixes this, there is nothing developers can do to make the experience better.

 

[Max(IT)]

The majority of bugs in third-party keyboards can be traced to a buggy API. Until Apple fixes this, there is nothing developers can do to make the experience better.

How can you say that? Did you try several?

 

[gordon1234]

How can you say that? Did you try several?

I sure have. The bugs in the keyboard API are extremely well-documented. See the enormous third-party keyboard thread or just about any other threads dealing with keyboards.

Examples of bugs that will occur reliably with any third-party keyboard:

- General slowness to load.
- stuttering animation / no animation when keyboard appears.
- keyboard randomly not loading at all or reverting to default keyboard (especially bad in Spotlight and Messages)
- Keyboard reverting to default on a thread-by-thread basis in Messages.
- Keyboard locking up the Messages app completely.
- Inability to leave reviews in the App Store.
- A host of little glitches when browsing the web and using various third-party apps.

There may well be real bugs in Swype, but chances are most of the annoyances you are seeing are more Apple than Swype.

 

[Ardmanz]

Swype is mostly fine for me.

It often crashes messages but I very rarely use it so it's not a big deal to me.
Sometimes whatever I'm using reverts to the stock keyboard but that's quite rare.

 

[ra4oasis]

I use Swiftkey, and it is mostly reliable. I have to restart an app with the keyboard brought up every now an then, but overall the experience is good. Not flawless, but the typing is so much faster I can accept a few bugs, and overall i still like it better than the stock keyboard.

 

[Max(IT)]

I sure have. The bugs in the keyboard API are extremely well-documented. See the enormous third-party keyboard thread or just about any other threads dealing with keyboards.

Examples of bugs that will occur reliably with any third-party keyboard:

- General slowness to load.
- stuttering animation / no animation when keyboard appears.
- keyboard randomly not loading at all or reverting to default keyboard (especially bad in Spotlight and Messages)
- Keyboard reverting to default on a thread-by-thread basis in Messages.
- Keyboard locking up the Messages app completely.
- Inability to leave reviews in the App Store.
- A host of little glitches when browsing the web and using various third-party apps.

There may well be real bugs in Swype, but chances are most of the annoyances you are seeing are more Apple than Swype.

I'd like to see those documents before judging who's responsible

 

[gordon1234]

The point about third party keyboards...

I'd like to see those documents before judging who's responsible

What documents? It's "documented" by the the fact that there are dozens of third-party keyboards that all exhibit exactly the same behaviors. So, either every single keyboard developer somehow wrote the exact same bugs into their keyboards, and aren't willing to fix them, or there are serious problems with the underlying API.

Go to the support site or FAQ for any major third-party keyboard and they will tell you as much. Two-thirds of the FAQ items for SwiftKey have an answer that amounts to "we hope to have a solution to this issue from Apple soon" which is a diplomatic way of saying their hands are tied.

In addition, I've filed issues for all of the above issues in Apple's radar bug-tracking system, and they've all been closed as duplicates. Not closed as "not a bug" as they will do if your issue is not a problem with Apple's software, but as in "lots of people have already reported this and we're working on it."

Additionally, Apple is slowly fixing these issues without any updates on the part of third-parties. For instance, the issue of not being able to leave a review in the App Store has been fixed in iOS 8.3 Beta 1 for all keyboards.

Short of Apple giving a press conference to apologize for all the keyboard woes, I'm not sure what additional proof you could ask for.

 

[maflynn]

Actually my Android experience isn't any better.

For me it has, both Android and WP have it implemented better, or at the very least the execution of the keyboards are better only because my user experience using them has been more positive then with iOS. As I said, I'm generally pleased with it, but there are some niggling issues.

 

[Armen]

I'd like to see those documents before judging who's responsible

I have Swype, Fleksy and Swifkey. ALL of them lock up in the messages app and fail to appear at times. Swiftkey is the most stable of the 3 so far.

I'm waiting on  to fix the API.

 

[thebro20]

I have Swype, Fleksy and Swifkey. ALL of them lock up in the messages app and fail to appear at times. Swiftkey is the most stable of the 3 so far.

I'm waiting on  to fix the API.

same for me, tried them all and have the same issues. i really do love swype and how much faster it is to type but i cant stand the bugs

 

[mrex]

Been using swype+dragon for a long time with android and it works great. now having it on my ipad, it's pretty useless. hoping to see huge improvements in the next ios update.

 

[steve62388]

I have Swype, Fleksy and Swifkey. ALL of them lock up in the messages app and fail to appear at times. Swiftkey is the most stable of the 3 so far.

I'm waiting on  to fix the API.

Wow. Is it? I use Swiftkey and find it about as stable as a one legged drunk walking a tightrope. I would hate to see the others.

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I sure have. The bugs in the keyboard API are extremely well-documented. See the enormous third-party keyboard thread or just about any other threads dealing with keyboards.

Examples of bugs that will occur reliably with any third-party keyboard:

- General slowness to load.
- stuttering animation / no animation when keyboard appears.
- keyboard randomly not loading at all or reverting to default keyboard (especially bad in Spotlight and Messages)
- Keyboard reverting to default on a thread-by-thread basis in Messages.
- Keyboard locking up the Messages app completely.
- Inability to leave reviews in the App Store.
- A host of little glitches when browsing the web and using various third-party apps.

There may well be real bugs in Swype, but chances are most of the annoyances you are seeing are more Apple than Swype.

You forgot to mention not moving the display up correctly when entering text into a dialogue box. I'm currently typing this message blind.

 

[Armen]

Wow. Is it? I use Swiftkey and find it about as stable as a one legged drunk walking a tightrope. I would hate to see the others.

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You forgot to mention not moving the display up correctly when entering text into a dialogue box. I'm currently typing this message blind.

I forgot which but one of the other keyboards doesn't have a Go or search button when you enter text. Very annoying on some websites.

 

[JackieInCo]

I alternate between Swiftkey and Swype and both have the same exact bugs on two of the apps I use frequently which tells me it's an iOS problem.

There are times when I go to use the official Twitter app and type up a tweet but there is no way to send it.

Using Tweetbot, I type out my message and hit send and only the persons tweet handle gets posted and my message is missing.

Then, trying to use spotlight sometimes and the keyboard never pops up. I've had that happen in a few other apps recently too.

Sometimes, I just reach for my Note 4 because I can do what I want to do and know it will work.

 

[tmanto02]

Never had any issues with swiftkey

 

[zosokm]

I have found that all third party keyboards still have the problem of disappearing suddenly when swiping down from search menu in the home screen.. This was supposed to be fixed on iOS 8.1.3 but the problem still persists.. Fleksy seems to be the most reliable in this regard and SwiftKey the most unreliable.

 

[redman042]

I've tried Swype and Fleksy and experienced the same bugs frequently on both. So I've reverted back to the stock keyboard. I'm just not willing to compromise on something as integral to the OS as the keyboard.

While Swype and Fleksy do make typing easier in some ways, I've found that my recent upgrade from an iPhone 5s to a 6 Plus has done wonders for ease of typing given the much larger keyboard on the 6 Plus. So I'm not wanting a third party replacement nearly as much.

 

[MikhailT]

Even the stock keyboard have issues such as incorrect rotations, stutters, and sometime crashes (it'd look like it refreshed itself).

Custom keyboards are brand new in iOS 8. That automatically means it's going to go through some pain growths while Apple learns about all of the issues and iterate the APIs in the next iOS version, in this case, iOS 9. It is not all the fault of the keyboard companies, some of them are definitely on Apple.

I do see iOS 8.3 having less issues with the stock keyboard from my experience, it's certainly more stable for me compared to iOS 8.1. Hopefully, it'd means the same for the 3rd party keyboards as well.

I honestly stopped using custom keyboards, the bugs are too annoying.

 

[Armen]

I've tried Swype and Fleksy and experienced the same bugs frequently on both. So I've reverted back to the stock keyboard. I'm just not willing to compromise on something as integral to the OS as the keyboard.

While Swype and Fleksy do make typing easier in some ways, I've found that my recent upgrade from an iPhone 5s to a 6 Plus has done wonders for ease of typing given the much larger keyboard on the 6 Plus. So I'm not wanting a third party replacement nearly as much.

My thoughts exactly. I'd rather have a stock keyboard that works 100% of the time than gain any kind of advantage from a 3rd party keyboard that isn't stable.

 

[Max(IT)]

I'm actually not experiencing all this kind of instability you are complaining about, with Swype.
There are some glitches, for sure, but the overall result is an improved experience in typing.

 

[Armen]

I'm actually not experiencing all this kind of instability you are complaining about, with Swype.
There are some glitches, for sure, but the overall result is an improved experience in typing.

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