SwiftKey Beta Breaks 100,000 Downloads in First Week
If it seems like we just told you that TouchType just released their SwiftKey beta into the Android Market, that’s because we did. It happened only a week ago, but today the makers of the alternative typing solution are boasting in a press release just how successful their little keyboard is. Already at over 100,000 downloads, SwiftKey looks to give competitors like Swype a run for their money. TouchType is of course aided by their software being readily available in the Android Market and the large media attention they received upon announcing the public beta. If you haven’t given SwiftKey a try, I don’t know what you’re waiting for. You can get it in the Android Market by following or clicking the QR code present below the full press release text.
Press Release:
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM — An innovative text prediction app that takes the strain out of touchscreen typing has exceeded 100,000 downloads in its first week on Google’s Android™ Market, its developers said Wednesday.
SwiftKey™, created by British start-up company TouchType, was the most downloaded Android™ app last week according to the popular blog ‘Android and Me’. It was also chosen as a top Android pick by several other major tech sites, including Gizmodo, Tech Radar and Brothersoft Mobile.
“The last week has been phenomenal,” said Jon Reynolds, TouchType’s co-founder and CEO. “We started TouchType because we knew there must be a better way to type on a touchscreen phone. As well as exceeding all download expectations, we have been overwhelmed by the positive feedback about SwiftKey™. It has already established itself as a market-leading text entry solution.”
Tech blog Engadget heralded SwiftKey™’s launch as the introduction of “world class predictive text” for Android phones, saying the app has “an uncanny ability to guess what your next word will be… In our early tests, we’re pretty darn impressed.”
TechRadar named SwiftKey™ as the best keyboard app on Android™. Placing SwiftKey™ at the top of its Android™ apps of the week, Gizmodo said: “The star feature of SwiftKey™ is its predictive text – it literally learns the way you type.”
What makes SwiftKey™ revolutionary is TouchType’s patent-pending language technology, which understands how words are combined within sentences and continually learns as a user writes.
“We’ve analysed over 50 billion words in nine major languages to build the models that drive our prediction engine,” said Ben Medlock, TouchType’s Chief Technical Officer. “SwiftKey™ is the first text entry app on the market to harness the incredible power of statistical language processing. It takes predictive text to a whole new level, resulting in an unparalleled user experience.”
TouchType says the user feedback it has received so far has been incredibly positive. “I think this is the best way to text ever invented,” one user said. “SwiftKey Beta is probably the best thing that happened to Android in recent times,” commented another.
The beta is currently available to all smartphones running the Google Android™ platform. TouchType says it is working hard to make a series of enhancements in response to beta feedback before a full paid launch later in the year. The first update to the beta was released Wednesday.