Do you use the swipe to type feature on your phone?
Is this how most people type on mobile these days, drawing lines all over a keyboard instead of tapping the individual keys? I've never had an iPhone so I don't even know if they can do this natively, but I know you can switch keyboards at least, so it should still be an option if not.
Same, but even when I type one-handed, I also bounce back and forth at each word. Swiping gets short words wrong more often, but more rarely long words.
So for instance, for “I am on vacation”, the only word I’d swipe when one-handed is “vacation”. If I swiped “am”, I’d probably have a 50-50 chance of getting “an”; which may or may not self-correct later, depending on what else it got wrong.
Exact same. Two thumbs when typing longer responses or when both hands are free. One handed always swiping unless I need to type an uncommon word or name.
I still use Swype somehow? Not sure how the app is still working after it was acquired, and I thought, abandoned.
Have tried many other swipe capable keyboards and none compare for me for some reason (even though quality of Swype recognition has gone down noticeably over the years).
Both, I use swipe as my go-to method but if it doesn't write the proper word I tend to erase it and type it one letter after the other (which happened 3 times as I wrote this comment).
This is very common if you switch languages often. Half the time I'm typing something in spanish and want an english word it jumps the gun and outputs a word I've never ever used, and viceversa. That said, I still prefer swipe.
This is the way!
Also what a lot of others already commented, that it's more smooth to use with one hand.
For me it's also nice to use, when it comes to switching languages. English is my second language and with swipe it feels like the autocorrect works pretty good, because it is more forgiving if you don't know exactly how the word is actually written. A small idea about how the word is constructed is enough.
I never could get into it. I type like it's a keyboard I actually don't even look at the keyboard I am looking at the input field and glancing down if I have to. Swipe sucks for me and is way less accurate than my method and I actually have to focus on the keyboard just to have worse WPM. I also get pissed off cuz if my hands are at all wet the typing tries to swipe.
P.s. it's hilarious to me that this long existing android feature is treated like some unique cool thing when Apple finally adopts it 10 years later. Like wireless and fast charging. But yeah I'm lame cuz I have a green bubble and don't use stupid personalized emoji thing
You should be able to turn off the swipe inputs for the kb entirely, at least i could on mine (the accidental activation was annoying me too). You can probably find it searching for swipe in the settings.
I use it all the time, it's incredibly convenient. I've been using it for years now though, granted. The most annoying thing is when you have to go back and type out a word letter by letter because it's nowhere close to what you were looking for -- but that's also the alternative of not using Swype. So... Shrug
Ah, yes. For one handed typing. It's probably pretty accurate if it's just learning off of the few phrases you type one handed. I'm sure it's the same few pretty frequently.
Yeah, same, I think I had a paid version of Swype way back when and used that until they integrated it into Android. That being said, there are some words I will type in letter by letter, because some longer words require a lot of swiping, or won't be recognized easily. Autodefenestration for example.
At first I never used it, always thought typing with two fingers was the fastest (and actually got me the result I wanted).
Nowadays I swipe 99% of the time on my Android phone and it is a lot faster. Especially when your phone learns the words you like to use. It's not perfect of course and you will have to correct some words down the line (it still sometimes refuses to swipe "Fuck"), but overall I'm faster with it.
Also super comfy for long and complex words when you just roughly swipe it and get the full word written there without errors.
Overall though I prefer to touch type on a proper keyboard on the PC, that's still the fastest :)
The inability to get duck to move up the list is insane. I'm blows my ducking mind everytime autocorrect rears it's stupid ducking head like I'm a mother ducking child that can't curse via text.
I'm a 40 year old man for ducks sake. Let me use a ducking word.
Next time it autocorrects duck or ducking, try a long press on the word and you should get an option to no longer guess that word. Depending on the keyboard you're using you can typically long press on fuck or fucking and add it to the dictionary as well.
It often doesn't work well for very short words, or uncommon words and whenever I have to stop swiping to tap out individual words I feel like a time traveler being forced to use pre-historic tools.
I do now. I've been using OpenBoard for a few years after ditching the Google spyware keyboard, and recently I've learned about a fork of OB with gesture typing. It's perfect if I have just one hand available.
Thanks for linking! Currently using OpenBoard to get away from Swiftkey's privacy issues, but OpenBoard's lack of swipe has been a hard adjustment. FlorisBoard is en route to swipe tho it's still very much in beta (but feels like alpha with the current implementation)
I'm not optimistic about Floris. A while ago they've made the decision to completely rewrite everything - a common occurrence among small-time FOSS projects, and almost always results in the project completely dying (or in a "better" case scenario, coming out of the ordeal as only a shell of its former self). Floris Board... Has not had any receipt in a while.
But fortunately with this fork of OB existing, there isn't much need for it anymore. It would be nice to have a selection of modern FOSS keyboards, but, ah well.
I've swiped since the early days of Swype. This forked version of OB let's you swipe only on the English layout. Swipe doesn't work for the other two languages I use. And English isn't my main one. Don't see much development for the keyboard either, so I'll probably have to wait a long time to use it as a daily driver. So, sadly I'm stuck with GB for now...
I feel like the accuracy has gone down over the years. Also, Gboard has had an issue for a bit now where it will show that I'm swiping one long word but insert a different one when I let go.
You can only basically change the skin on an iphone keyboard. Downloading another keyboard still uses the apple keyboard under the hood. That's why all Apple keyboards are such trash compared to Android.
Same with your browser. You can download a new browser, but it's still Safari.
Youre right. The reason i went with iPhone is im trying to avoid using google services. Im a fan of Android but google is crazy with all the tracking. Tried graphene but i need something that just works.
Also i dont like having too many apps on my phone.
iOS keyboard is pretty good in iOS 17. The iPhone's keyboard on iOS 17 leverages a transformer model, which OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT) uses in their own language models, to learn from what you type on your keyboard to better predict what you might say next, whether it's a name, phrase or curse word.
Reassuring to see the love for Swype in here. I'm still using Swype on Android. I've tried many other keyboards, gboard comes closest but still lacks some of the quality of life little features from Swype.
I tried using it for a few months and just kept getting wildly inaccurate predictions. It wasn't any faster or easier so I just continue typing normally. Plus the multi-language recognition isn't good enough in my experience.
I don't understand how with all the ai we have not it can't auto correct properly with the context of the sentence, but I still can't use letter typing as an alternative, it's too slow
When I got a pixel 7 pro, I was very sad to find out Swype dragon had been discontinued. The APK are still around, but I'm not sure I'm ready to root and or put a custom OS my pixel yet to get it installed.
I've been going back and forward between gboard and swift key.
Both are orders of magnitude worse than Swype was at recognising traces for longer words. Blows my mind how Google and Microsoft still can't build something as good as decade old Swype.
I think so. I tried to install a few different versions and got errors saying it wasn't able to be installed. Assume Swype was a 32 bit app, which you can't install on pixel 7 without doing away with the stock Android.
I've used it for several years now, and I could never go back. It makes me shudder to think of trying to type out words by tapping on individual letters again. Swiping is so much faster.
I use it all the time, but I've recently got a new phone and it's taking a while for the autocorrect to get used to my swiping, so it has a fair few mistakes currently
GBoard is great for swipe typing and a must have on all my phones. I also like the one-handed mode which lets you shrink and move the keyboard for easier reaching. I usually have it small, slightly higher up, and on the right side so I can type without having to stretch my thumb and can keep a firm grip on my popsocket. Recently sent an entire text message without looking at my phone while walking down the street.
iPhone didn't have native swipe keyboard until 2019. I'm guessing a lot of people had iPhones for years without having a native swipe option so they just never bothered with it. I'm definitely in that category. Honestly I totally forgot it was even a thing until reading this post just now. After years of practice I'm crazy fast with two thumb typing, I can only imagine swipe would slow me down to the point of irritation.
I was an early adopter of T9 typing on my Nokia back in the day. When I finally got a smartphone, I found a keyboard app that had T9 as an option and used that. When Swype first came out, I couldn't believe that another typing system could actually beat the speed and ease of T9 typing.
I've always preferred to type in full words and sentences, and I'm a good speller, so most of the reasons other people don't like swipe typing don't apply to me.
I'm typing using a wild mix of swiping and typing...
I'm bilingual and the English keyboard is way better than the German... I have to type way more if I write in German. Which is quite annoying - therefore I tend to use a lot of English vocab when writing with my family because it is just plain faster.
I started out using the Swype app back before it was a common feature. It works well for me and I've been using it ever since. The learning curve is not steep and it speeds up my typing back at least a factor of two.
Almost always. I never really got the hang of tapping -- I don't write all that often on my phone, so I don't have the accuracy down. Swyping lets me use my general knowledge of the keyboard to make up for my poor accuracy.
I started using it with SwiftKey and when that went shit started using it with Gboard so probably 10 years...? If I have to do it cave man style it feels impossibly slow. My wife still types each individual letter out quite happily.
It's ironic because I used to have a BlackBerry back in the day and thought I wouldn't be able to cope without a physical keyboard
Nope, typing this with buttons on a virtual keyboard right now! I mainly use a desktop for most of the day, so I just prefer using the same system on mobile too.
i tried swiping and its just annoyingly inaccururate (but i do switch off the auto correct, because it also sucks, and i switch between writing my native language, and english)
Yes, even though my language makes it a bit frustrating to use at times.
When the stars align and my text mostly contains dictionary words, it can even be faster than typing on PC. However... my language is agglutinative, meaning that we like to add stuff to the end of our words to mean possession, direction, objective case, person, etc. That means that for every single unique case I need to add that modified word to the dictionary to be able to swipe it the next time. However, after a few years, it seems to be working really well : ).
It's an option on iOS. I use the FUCK out of it on every device that I have, even on tablets (though only in portrait mode, and with a reduced keyboard.) Yeah sometimes we mis-swipe, and some words (like "mis-swipe!") are not going to be recognized. But you type the weird words, swipe the rest, and then fix any mistakes by tapping on the word suggestions as you go. Besides, it's not like you shouldn't read it over once when you're done. People like to blame autocorrect for their mistakes but fr what the heck happened to editing your shit??
So yes, I use swipe, and it's objectively more efficient so everyone should!
First time I ever used this was about a million years ago using (I think) the first keyboard app to introduce this; 'Swype' on Android. Dedicated GBoard user for years now, but swiping to type is so fast and accurate...
Swipe typing is the only thing that keeps me using google keyboard. Their implementation is the only one that works well for me. I think I used to use Swype before, that feels like forever ago
It was about 5 years ago that I last used Swype, and man do I miss it. Gboard, like you said, does very well. But I recall fewer frustrations with Swype when it was still supported. Sigh...
I worry about Google using the keyboard to violate my privacy so i moved to 8vin. It is a really odd keyboard but you get used to it after a few weeks.
I don't, but I also tend to talk about stuff that tends to involve a lot of atypical names or words or slang that gets autocorrected to something wrong a lot when I use swipe, and I can't be arse to figure out how to get it to work for that stuff, so I just stick to typing it out most of the time. It just feels more natural for me.
I did use it but over the past months the input recognition got worse and worse so I switched to something completely different: thumbKey https://github.com/dessalines/thumb-key
Funny thing that I discovered it around the same time I switched to lemmy as it is developed by the same guy...
It's really unbelievable how bad swiftkey is, especially after seeing what language models can do nowadays. The number of times it has entered a totally absurd and exotic word in the wrong language in the middle of a very common phrase like 'see you later', is just ridiculous.
I'm testing thumb key right now. There's definitely a learning curve, but i'll see how fast I can get. Thanks for the tip!
i never do. im quite an old school mobile typer in general - i dont use any autocorrect features, barely use autocomplete word suggestions... i type with two fingers which are my left index finger and right thumb. call me crazy, but it works wonders for me, and whenever i display my mobile typing speed people are amazed. can definitely recommend trying to type without any assistance for a while because it can ultimately lead to some very strong results :3
Yes, 100%, I use an iPhone 13 mini and iOS’s one-handed swipe keyboard (right handed swiping on right side singlehand keyboard mode) is my default way of messaging. It goes very fast and detects language changes very accurately as well!
Yes, I have been using swipe typing since the Nokia N9, which had this feature. However, there was a gap in my use when the iPhone didn’t support custom keyboards. It wasn’t until they introduced the capability and implemented it natively that I started using swipe typing again.
Yup, been using Google keyboard pretty reliably for 8 years or so, but still need to use popup options and proofread and make corrections. I find the voice "typing" faster and more accurate now, but don't want to speak to my phone when people are around.
I still use nintype even though the dev disappeared years ago. Simultaneous double swiping and a VERY good learning dictionary. You can hit like 80 wpm without much effort.
I find it to be much slower and less accurate than standard typing with autocorrect. I try from time to time for fun, or when I have only one hand available, but it's not something to be used day to day.
For a long time, maybe since they introduced it until about 2 years ago, and then I feel like they really got the voice to text down, and I mostly use that now
I tried it once years ago and couldn't get into it, found it kept guessing everything wrong or I was using it wrong, not sure. But just recently I got a smartwatch and heard many people recommending it and on such a small screen, it's incredibly good at what it does. I may try it again on my phone soon as I'm starting to like it.
As with a few others I only really use it when I’m using the phone one handed. If I’m eating and want to reply. Otherwise two thumbs tapping away is quicker for me.
iPhones can do this natively now. I use it sometimes. It really depends on a lot of factors. How long is my message? How many hands are free? Do I feel patient right now?
I had to think about this for a bit but I think I do both a bit of swiping and typing with my thumbs. I think swiping is especially useful one handed, imo.
I do if I need to type something really really quickly, but I still type normally if I'm trying to carefully format something with proper grammar and all that (like a Lemmy reply, for example!)
Oh, that looks interesting but with a high learning curve, haha! Kinda interested in trying it, but not sure if it supports Norwegian characters though.
It does take a bit of getting used to. But typing on it feels awesome. since it uses just 5 keys, I have also implemented a version of it that works on my digital piano to type on my pc using midi (useful for loading sheet music on screen without having to get up.
Also, I use termux on android. I like the keyboard because it doesn't take up half the screen by itself and also allows me to "easily" use function keys and modifiers.
I swipe and tap to type. It really depends on what I'm doing. If I'm typing one handed, swiping is really nice and super fast. I'll also swipe to type if my phone is on the table and I'm only typing with one finger. If I'm using both hands, I will generally tap to type.
Ever since Swype came out I've been using it. I tried to use swiftkey and gboard when swype stopped updating. But I went back to Swype even if it is deprecated it just feels better to me
I have a Z Fold as my phone, so I tend to switch between tapping and swiping depending on if its open or closed. I can only really swipe on the smaller screen, and have to tap on the big one. It made me wonder what others do, because before this I can't remember the last time I tapped for anything other than correcting spelling of tougher words to swipe.
I use a hybrid. If I'm typing with both hands, and I need to be speedy I'll typically use regular typing, but if I'm just causally typing stuff out or only have one hand I'll use swipe. I like having the option
swipe for common 3+ letter words, tapping for unusual words and uncommon pronouns, and very short words. I guess I've learned what swipe is good at guessing and what it's bad at.
The only time I've ever used swipe was when Nintype/Keyboard69 was still supported. The two finger swipe was the only time swipe could keep up with my tap typing speed, and sometimes exceed it, but since then nobody has come in and done anything as revolutionary with the typing game, and Nintype is simply too out of date and buggy, but man, I really miss it.
Sometimes, but mostly I use tap to type. Usually swipe is accurate, but I don’t always want the risk that it’ll get something wrong and it’ll take longer to fix it than if I’d just typed it straight away.
I use it when I'm typing one handed, but I'm also a bit of an oddball who uses the Dvorak keyboard on my phone, which comes with it's trade-offs.
For two-handed typing I like it a lot, with the vowels all on the left side of the screen I feel like I alternate between my left and right thumb pretty well.
But it does seem to make swipe typing a bit less accurate because all the vowels are all clustered together so for example bat/bot/bet/but/bit are all a bit closer together than they would be otherwise (although Gboard usually seems to a pretty good job of sorting it out from context)
I tend to swipe (on Android btw) whenever I only have one hand available, and type when I have both. It works really well and barely ever comes up with a wrong with.
100%. I use a third party app called Nintype which actually lets you two-thumb swipe type - to my knowledge the only one that has this as a feature. It's so so much faster than single thumb swiping and peck typing once you get used to it. Sadly it's been abandoned by the dev, so I'll be gutted when whatever iOS version decides Nintype is too old and no longer supported
Keyboard69 (the android version of nintype) was wild. I loved the visuals, but the learning curve put me off sadly. I wish the dev had stuck to it, it really was the keyboard of the future, way ahead of its time.
I run LineageOS on my phone so I sadly don't have that feature. I found it was easier for me to quickly reply to texts but I would still fall back to typing with 2 thumbs (as I am now) and now that I have no swype-esque keyboard I think I may be faster without it.
I tried it several times and couldn't get the hang of it. I'd always overshoot the character I was going for. I had a colleague who was amazingly fast with swiping to type.
iPhones can natively do swipe to text and I love the feature. It also seems to have improved accuracy as a result of the iOS 17 keyboard updates. I always find myself mixing swipe to text and regular typing together. I hardly even think about it really.