I loved Swiftkey X keyboard for my Samsung Droid Charge and HTC Thunderbolt as it is the best keyboard as it predicts the next word before you hit a key. I loved it so much that when I got my Motorola Xoom tablet from Verizon, I installed the tablet version. The tablet version is so cool because it allows you to select a layout for typing with your thumbs. I love the prediction, but hate the voice to text.
One of the worst problems with Swiftkey’s voice to text is you have to hold their logo or touch it then touch voice input. Therefore it is an extra step over stock and other keyboards. Swiftkey also comes with it’s own voice recognition which is very accurate. Unfortunately on the tablet it recognizes what you say, but it does not input it where you would like. Thankfully with the tablet you can select voice input near the notification area in the bottom right to be able to use the pre-installed Google Voice for input.
Voice input is a bigger deal with Ice Cream Sandwich devices due to the significant improvement as it enters the words while you type. The accuracy is greatly improved. It even underlines words that it is unsure it got correctly and allows you choices of what it thinks you said. I believe it gets smarter understanding what you say by you correcting it. The voice to text is such a significant improvement, I will not install Swiftkey X on my Galaxy Nexus because it would force me to use their voice to text.
Today I saw an article about Swiftkey 3 Beta that is designed for Ice Cream Sandwich phones. The ‘X’ version did not allow me to switch ways to input very easily. The new Swiftkey 3 Beta did not change much for the keyboard. It does however allow you to drag your notification bar down and choose a different input method included the Google Voice typing that I love so much. I still do not like that I have to do 2 steps to get access to it. I will try it for a bit because I do miss being able to swipe from right to left to erase whole words. The Ice Cream Sandwich stock keyboard is much improved as you can enter a letter or two and it will predict what you are typing. You can also hit just one key to use voice to text with the stock keyboard. I love that so much, I don’t think the Swiftkey will have a chance.
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