One advantage that Android mobile devices have over iPhones and iPads is that they can be customized in ways that would require hacking (so-called “jailbreaking”) on iOS. For instance, on Android, different kinds of on-screen keyboards can be downloaded and used, something Apple doesn’t allow.
One such app, “SwiftKey,” a $1.99 keyboard app for Android, has become popular by offering some powerful ways to speed up typing. Its killer feature is smart predictive typing; it guesses what you’re going to type as you’re inserting letters based on things you’re written before, and it learns over time how you use words and phrases. It also allows for typing by dragging a finger over letters, a mode called “SwiftKey Flow” that’s similar to keyboard app competitor “Swype.”
“SwiftKey” also syncs across different devices, remembering your settings, and works in 60 languages. It can be set to a variety of colors and keyboard types and has other clever options to speed up typing. One setting, for instance, makes tapping the space bar twice add a period to the end of a word and start a new sentence.
Omar L. Gallaga can be reached at ogallaga@statesman.com.
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