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Swype, the keyboard application made famous for its once-unique swiping gesture input, is receiving one of its biggest updates to date, in no small part thanks to the acquisition of the company by Nuance last year. The latest edition of the software keyboard is being dubbed a “four-in-one” input method and has more brains than ever thanks to the inclusion of Nuance’s XT9 technology.
Predictive text capabilities are enhanced by new voice-text dictionary syncing, which will add every new word a user inputs with Swype to their personal dictionary, with Swype adding the word to its vocabulary immediately in both text and speech modes. The dictionary can be further built up by allowing Swype to comb over texts and emails to gain a better understanding of the way individual users type.
While Swype still makes its name with its namesake swiping input, three other input modes round out the new “four-in-one” tag. Users can input text in a more traditional manner by tapping each individual letter, press a Dragon button to call up speech input, or draw individual characters using their fingertip. All is improved by the ever-learning predictive text input technology of XT9.
There is more in the latest version of Swype, including expanded language support, all of which gives Swype a new edge in the predictive software keyboard department. Check out the press release below for more info.
Nuance Launches Next Generation Swype
Swype’s New Living, Learning Keyboard Gets Smarter Every Time You Use It
Burlington, Mass. – June 20, 2012 – Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) today announced the next-generation Swype keyboard, a four-in-one keyboard that is a revolutionary step forward in the way people communicate and input text on their mobile devices. Swype now combines touch and voice input with unique adaptive capabilities to understand users’ preferences over time – becoming smarter and more personalized every time they swype, speak, tap and write.
Staying connected has never been more exciting as Swype provides consumers with more choice in how they input text, and now interprets a user’s personal language style – ultimately providing an amazingly fast, flexible, and accurate experience. New features include:
· Next Word Prediction: Swype’s next word prediction is amazingly intelligent as Nuance has integrated capabilities from its renowned XT9 portfolio. Swype gets smarter based on historical usage, so prediction becomes more accurate with each use.
· Voice-Text Dictionary Syncing: Swype now includes a personal dictionary. Every new word a user enters on the keyboard gets added to their personal dictionary for speech and text, and you can even have Swype learn from emails, texts and posts. These updates are then mapped into Swype’s unified language model, so people can immediately speak or write that same word no matter how unique or specialized.
· Language Downloads: Swypers everywhere can communicate in any language they speak, as Swype now supports the download of over 55 languages right from the device.
· Four-in-One Keyboard: Swype now delivers a four input modalities in one keyboard. People can swype from letter to letter; type rapidly with predictive text input powered by XT9; speak their text naturally through a fully integrated Dragon button; or, simply write letters, words and symbols using their fingertip. Further, users can switch back and forth between modalities on the fly – providing the ultimate in keyboard personalization.
“People use their keyboards every day in every way – so input needs to be fast and simple,” said Michael Thompson, executive vice president and general manager, Nuance Mobile. “The new Swype living, learning keyboard ushers in a new era of input, where the keyboard adapts to the users’ unique way of communicating every time they swype, speak, tap or write.”
So they will now be competing with their own app FlexT9? Interesting approach, market saturation I guess.
I was wondering the same thing – why not just incorporate the changes into Flex T9? Perhaps it’s about eliminating the competition, as I can see the challenge in overcoming Swype’s brand recognition.
I think it will go the other way – Swype is the stronger brand. I’ve had FlexT9 for a while now and love it, but I’m sure most people are more likely to know/trust/buy the Swype name.
Sounds like they are adding many of the features already in Swiftkey. I was a big Swype fan (and still am of sorts) but after using Swiftkey it would take a lot to pull me back. This isn’t enough.
I agree. My main problem with swype was incorrect word prediction and trouble editing texts with the proper punctuation and capital letters. Adding a ‘s to show possession always seemed like a pain in Swype. WIth Swiftkey my typing errors have almost dropped to zero and I don’t need to proof read everything twice. (Once to make fixes and once to make sure the fixes got fixed properly.)
Me, too. Swype was my keyboard of choice until I tried SwiftKey. My problem with Swype was with long words, needing to swype the entire word before getting predictions.
I’ve used Swype, Swiftkey and FlexT9. All have their draw, but I personally still prefer Swype. This could be an interesting update. I’m curious. Has this update already come through for some people? I haven’t gotten mine.
Interesting update? As far as the learning / predictions, absolutely! However, the Graffiti-style letter entry, while a slick feature to impress your friends, has to be the world’s least efficient method of entering text! (btw, does anyone use the T9 method?)
Was hoping for more languish support, still can’t write in my own languish.
Or English, apparently.
Good job making a constructive comment.
Interestingly enough when installing the new version from beta.swype.com the new version is “swype beta” and the old version I had before was just plain Swype. Anyways the new version does seem to work pretty good and does seem to do voice better. The old version would sometimes quit recording or never stop recording. Works good on my Galaxy Nexus anyways.
Does this fix Rezound issue where Swyping too quickly will yield 2 broken up words instead of the intended word?
Nice! Installs beautifully on my HTC EVO 4G LTE along side the pre-installed Swype. The beta version works SO much better than the pre-installed.
Forever in beta.
This version is finally a little taller than the last one, which was nearly unusable on a 4.3″ screen (Rezound), but it’s still a bit on the small side compared to other keyboards out there. But still no customization options for key height, long press duration, last word deletion, etc.which is a big fail. Swiping seems very accurate,but typing on this keyboard is horrible (larger size could help, but it’s nowhere near as accurate as SwiftKey for pure typing)
Does the new version in the Play Store scale properly on the Galaxy Note, or are we stuck forever with the version Samsung modified to ship with the Note?
it looks and works amazing on my Note
I like that you don’t have to remove the pre installed Swype that came with the skyrocket to install it.