Appreciate your concern, Tiny, but I did my homework ahead of time and there were plenty of users already enjoying the Swype beta keyboard. Unfortunately, the latest update hosed everything -- and the Swype forum is so full of complaints that I couldn't even get through them all. And, apparently, Nuance, the publisher of Swype, isn't known for its timely updates.
It's not so much the fact that the app is "beta" as it is that the developers added back in options that were previously removed due to a multitude of user complaints; so it's like they have now decided to ignore those complaints that they initially listened to. Second, they didn't maintain the user's personal dictionary, so all custom dicts. were lost with the new upgrade. Everyone's! And the current dictionary refuses to save words.
I still like the "feel" of Swype, for lack of a better word, but I've uninstalled it -- and replaced it with SwiftKey Flow Beta keyboard. It still has bugs and doesn't feel as sleek as Swype, but knowing SwiftKey's quality and attention to detail, I'm sure that their flow keyboard will surpass Swype's in a matter of a few weeks. Also, SwiftKey Flow has a "flow through" capability that's still in development. I can type an entire sentence without ever leaving the keyboard simply by swiping across the space bar after each word. I've tried it a few times now on complete sentences, and it's been averaging only one error per sentence. Also, holding down the back space key will delete entire words, which is a nice feature as well.
So, I'm now promoting SwiftKey Flow Beta. If you own SwiftKey's standard or tab keyboard, when the Flow keyboard is finally released, it will be part of the update to all owners of SwiftKey.
Cheers,
- martyh
