Wrio Keyboard for iOS Claims up to 70% Faster Typing Speed

[MacRumors]

Swiss startup Wrio has launched a new keyboard app for iOS which claims to speed up typing by between 20 and 70 percent compared to standard Qwerty layouts.

The developers of Wrio say they achieved this typing feat by throwing out the rulebook that says keys should be square, and instead adopting a honeycomb-like layout of hexagonal keys. This allows individual keys to be a little larger than usual, which reduces the incidence of mistyped characters.

Users will notice there's no typical spacebar in the Wrio keyboard either. This functionality is divided into two single space keys at the centre of the layout. The delete key has been removed, and users swipe from right to left to delete a character, holding the swipe at the end to continue deleting characters.

A swipe right restores deleted characters, and holding the swipe restores multiple characters. And instead of relying on shift keys which have also been removed, swiping up on a character types a capital version of it.

Eight of the most commonly used punctuation symbols can be found in two primary keyboard keys, which serve up a secondary symbol with a hold, a third with a hold and swipe up, and a fourth with a hold-swipe to the right.

Elsewhere, holding down on a key invokes any accented variations available for the character, while a new double-function key takes users to the secondary keyboard and swiping up on the same key takes them to the emoji deck.

Wrio also supports 30 languages, and boasts a custom user dictionary that learns what languages are regularly typed and makes predictions based on usage patterns.

The developers claim that after one or two weeks, users should be familiar enough with the Wrio keyboard to start making significant gains in typing speed over traditional layouts.

Wrio currently costs $2.99 on the App Store as part of a limited "40 percent off" introductory offer, and is available for iPhone and iPad. [Direct link]

Article Link: Wrio Keyboard for iOS Claims up to 70% Faster Typing Speed

 

[retroneo]

Apple's own keyboards should be made using the keyboard extension API. That way they would fix the problems that render these extensions almost unusable.

 

[Freakyslidey]

I tried this keyboard. Definitely takes time to get used to it. Good idea though. Unfortunately, as of now autocorrection isn't supported, and 3D Touch isn't either (I.e. Pressing hard on the keyboard to get to the cursor).

 

[tom.humphrey]

Way too expensive for a keyboard whose features are a) not really new and b) untested

 

[Big_Berny]

Hi guys
I'm the co-founder of WRIO Keyboard.

@Freakyslidey: You're right that autocorrection is not implemented yet in Android. We're currently working on it an will submit it within to weeks. But since autocorrection has to learn how you type first, it needs 1-2 weeks anyway until it work. This learning mode is already implemented.
3D Touch would be very nice but unfortunately there are still a lot of devices around which don't support it. That's why we couldn't use it for basic features yet. You can still suggest it on our community platform so people can vote for it. Would be great! For us it's important to know which features are the most needed ones so we can focus on these things first.

@tom.humphrey: I think a lot of the features are new. Not only the hexagon keys which are rounder (easier to hit) but also the gestures to capitalize (swipe up), delete (swipe left) and restore (swipe right). You can also adjust deletion (and restore) speed by swiping shorter or longer.
By the way it's not untested at all: We had over 800 beta testers from our Kickstarter campaign who tested the app for several months. Of course there's still room for improvement, no doubt. But it's still version 1.0.

Best
Janis

 

[Shirasaki]

Hmm, it looks like now smartphone/tablet screen becomes new playground testing different keyboard layout and design.
Some third party keyboards like this could test their idea in the wild, gather usage data, and then improve it.
Maybe in next decade, QWERTY will be replaced to a more human-friendly layout. Pure guess.

 

[Big_Berny]

Hmm, it looks like now smartphone/tablet screen becomes new playground testing different keyboard layout and design.
Some third party keyboards like this could test their idea in the wild, gather usage data, and then improve it.
Maybe in next decade, QWERTY will be replaced to a more human-friendly layout. Pure guess.

You're right. It's just weird that we still use a 10 finger typewriter layout which is more than 140 years old. And even back then it was not optimized to type fast but to actually slow you down so the typewriter didn't get stuck.

 

[Avieshek]

SwiftKey is free! And you can't stop them from implementing the same.

 

[Dilster3k]

I was really excited when 3rd party keyboards were announced, now years later I'm still using Apple's default keyboard.

 

[andy845]

This might have been worth a look but at £2.29 in the UK there is no chance I'll be trying it.

 

[Shirasaki]

I was really excited when 3rd party keyboards were announced, now years later I'm still using Apple's default keyboard.

Yeah. After trying out SwiftKey, an emoticon keyboard, I go back to stock one and never change until now.
Don't know why. But I don't like third party keyboard on android system either.

 

[tom.humphrey]

Hi guys
I'm the co-founder of WRIO Keyboard.

@Freakyslidey: You're right that autocorrection is not implemented yet in Android. We're currently working on it an will submit it within to weeks. But since autocorrection has to learn how you type first, it needs 1-2 weeks anyway until it work. This learning mode is already implemented.
3D Touch would be very nice but unfortunately there are still a lot of devices around which don't support it. That's why we couldn't use it for basic features yet. You can still suggest it on our community platform so people can vote for it. Would be great! For us it's important to know which features are the most needed ones so we can focus on these things first.

@tom.humphrey: I think a lot of the features are new. Not only the hexagon keys which are rounder (easier to hit) but also the gestures to capitalize (swipe up), delete (swipe left) and restore (swipe right). You can also adjust deletion (and restore) speed by swiping shorter or longer.
By the way it's not untested at all: We had over 800 beta testers from our Kickstarter campaign who tested the app for several months. Of course there's still room for improvement, no doubt. But it's still version 1.0.

Best
Janis

Cheers for the response. Most of those gestures are already implemented by keyboards such as Minuum. And also have a look at your competition:

http://www.macworld.co.uk/feature/i...swype-swift-typeeto-word-flow-gboard-3534325/

This is a pretty recent report and shows a lot of your competition pricing at either free or around £1. As @andy845 said, it may have been worth a look at, but at £2.29 with a 40% discount You've priced yourself out of the market for me and even more so with a usual price of around £5 I'm afraid.

 

[Kabeyun]

Another cool looking third-party keyboard, but I'm still waiting for Apple to let them use the microphone.

 

[hagar]

The main problem with keyboards in iOS: there's no easy, intuitive way to switch keyboards. That button should be standardised on all keyboards

 

[n0m0n]

Way to expensive, even with the 40% discount. Won't try...

 

[dantracht]

$3 for yet another keyboard? At $1 maybe, but I'm not spending $3 when I have a stack of other keyboards I barely use. I prefer the stock keyboard or gboard.

 

[aleni]

This thing will not succed if it's priced like that. If i were the developers. I'll give this for free for about a week. And let those who have tried this on free can spread the words about how good this keyboard is. if it is anygood though.

 

[dannys1]

I sort of forgot that iOS had keyboard extensions after I tried a few of them when they first came out and then just went back to the default keyboards. I remember Android users saying how important custom keyboards were and its just another one of those gimmick things that once iOS implemented it, I used it for about a day and just went back to the stock setup.

Always makes me laugh when Android users claim customisation is key - but they're not designers or remotely knowledgeable about design or UI and I look at their phone and they've changed the font to comic sans and the background is a multi coloured superman or something. Err, looks lovely mate.

 

[akkers]

If you think the keybord is innovative enough and could be useful why not spend the amount they ask for? It is less than what u pay for a morning cup of coffee to put it into perspective.

That said, I personally have no interest in 3rd party keybords as i find the stock IOS one sufficient and dont type as much on my iphone. If i did i guess i would pay up.

 

[jonnysods]

I don't want to sound like an old man, but I don't want to have to take two weeks to learn a new keyboard!

 

[dstud208]

If you think the keybord is innovative enough and could be useful why not spend the amount they ask for? It is less than what u pay for a morning cup of coffee to put it into perspective.

That said, I personally have no interest in 3rd party keybords as i find the stock IOS one sufficient and dont type as much on my iphone. If i did i guess i would pay up.

This.

People getting up in arms because an app or keyboard is $3 annoys my especially when stopping for a $3 snack isn't even a second thought. The snack lasts 5 minutes people, the app/keyboard lasts "forever". Priorities you know.

 

[SMGreenfield]

How about an option to keep a qwerty-like layout, so people could at least try the innovative shape (and other features)?

 

[utdrmac]

@Big_Berny I wish there was to test drive this before schlepping out $4 only to find out I don't like it. Could you put a free 24-48 hour app on the App Store? That would give people like me plenty of time to test it out. $4 is pricy for a simple keyboard. My personal issue with typing on iPhone is something I am hoping your keyboard addresses, the size of the keys. Visually, it looks like my thumb is pressing 'r' but the skin contact actually presses 't'. I've wishing for a keyboard that let you actually edit the layout of the keys. If I could move the 'r' a few pixels to the right, my own accuracy would increase. Seeing your slightly larger keys makes me think this would help. But going back to my original point, $4 up front is too much to ask. Make your keyboard, free, with a timeout or after X,000 characters typed, it locks and you need to do an in-app purchase of $4 to unlock full functionality. Gives everyone the ability to decide if it's worth it. Cheers!

 

[misterc0w]

@Big_Berny downloaded this on my iPhone. It's a very interesting idea. I'm going to give it a shot for a bit but initially it isn't as handy (pardon the pun) as something like nintype. It was a steep learning curve there too, but ever since, tapping out messages has not felt as easy or natural as swiping them.

Thanks for your hard work to put this together!

 

[macfacts]

... 3D Touch would be very nice but unfortunately there are still a lot of devices around which don't support it. That's why we couldn't use it for basic features yet.

Android phones don't have 3d touch but on the Google keyboard, it lets you swipe in the space bar to move the cursor.