Swype

Swype

Developer(s)	Nuance (Microsoft)
Initial release	December 2, 2009 (2009-12-02)
Final release	Android 1.6.20 (November 19, 2014; 9 years ago (2014-11-19)[1]) [±]
Operating system	Android 2.2 and later, Bada, MeeGo, Symbian, Windows 7, Windows Mobile, iOS 8 and later
Type	Virtual keyboard, speech recognition
License	Proprietary

Swype was a virtual keyboard for touchscreen smartphones and tablets originally developed by Swype Inc.,^[2] founded in 2002, where the user enters words by sliding a finger or stylus from the first letter of a word to its last letter, lifting only between words.^[3] It uses error-correction algorithms and a language model to guess the intended word. It also includes a predictive text system, handwriting and speech recognition support. Swype was first commercially available on the Samsung Omnia II running Windows Mobile,^[4] and was originally pre-loaded on specific devices.

In October 2011, Swype Inc. was acquired by Nuance Communications where the company continued its development and implemented its speech recognition algorithm, Dragon Dictation.^[5]

In February 2018, Nuance announced that it had stopped development on the app and that no further updates will be made to it.^[6] The Android app was pulled from the Play Store. The iOS app was also pulled from the App Store. The trial version of Swype is not visible anymore for users in Play Store except users who have installed the app by accessing it in the installed apps part of the Play Store. Cloud features of the paid version such as "Backup&Sync" no longer function, and Nuance Communications has refused to issue refunds to customers who have purchased the app and can no longer reinstall it.

Software

Swype consists of three major components that contribute to its accuracy and speed: an input path analyzer, word search engine with corresponding database, and a manufacturer customizable interface.^[3]

The creators of Swype predict that users will achieve over 50 words per minute, with the chief technical officer (CTO) and founder Cliff Kushler claiming to have reached 55 words per minute.^[7][8] On 22 March 2010, a Swype employee by the name of Franklin Page achieved a new Guinness World Record of 35.54 seconds for the fastest text message on a touchscreen mobile phone using Swype on the Samsung i8000,^[9][10] and reportedly improved on 22 August of the same year to 25.94 using a Samsung Galaxy S.^[11] The Guinness world record text message consists of 160 characters in 25 words and was at that time typed in 25.94 seconds, which corresponds to a speed of nearly 58 words per minute, or 370 characters per minute. However, it has since been bettered by the Fleksy app on an Android phone to 18.19 seconds in 2014.^[12]

As of March 2018^[update], Swype supports the following languages:^[13]

	Keyboard	Handwriting	Dragon Dictation
Afrikaans
Albanian
Arabic
Armenian
Azerbaijani
Basque
Belarusian
Bosnian
Bulgarian
Burmese
Burmese (Zawgyi font)
Catalan
Chinese (CN, TW, HK)
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch (BE)
Dutch
English
English (US)
Estonian
Farsi
Finnish
French (FR, CA, CH)
Galician
Georgian
German
German (CH)
Greek
Gujarati
Hebrew
Hindi
Hinglish
Hungarian
Icelandic
Indonesian
Irish
Italian
Italian (CH)
Japanese
Javanese
Kannada
Kazakh
Khmer
Korean
Latvian
Lithuanian
Macedonian
Malay
Malayalam
Marathi
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese (BR, PT)
Romanian
Russian
Serbian
Sesotho
Sinhala
Slovak
Slovenian
Spanish
Sundanese
Swahili
Swedish
Tagalog
Tamil
Telugu
Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian
Urdu
Vietnamese
Xhosa
Zulu

Swype was listed among Time magazine's 50 Best Android Applications for 2013.^[14]

Availability

In February 2018, the Android app was pulled from the Play Store. The iOS app was also pulled from the App Store.

Starting from 2018, users have to a 3rd party service to download the full version of Swype.

In late February 2018, the full version of Swype was discontinued. The trial version of Swype is hidden from the Play Store and App Store. The Swype website was also discontinued and has become a redirect page to XT9 Smart Input.

In a statement emailed to The Verge, Nuance Communications said it would discontinue support of the Swype keyboard app and instead focus on other products. "The core technology behind Swype will continue to be utilized and improved upon across other Nuance offerings—and integrated into our broader AI-powered solutions—most notably in Android-based keyboard solutions for our automotive customers," the company said.

See also

• Dasher (software)
• Keyboard (computing)
• Multi-touch
• Shorthand
• T9 (predictive text)

References

1. "Swype - Android Apps on Google Play". Retrieved 23 Jan 2014.
2. "Swype Home Page". SwypeInc.com. Archived from the original on 2008-09-10. Retrieved 2011-10-27.
3. "Swype product page". SwypeInc.com. Archived from the original on 2010-10-04. Retrieved 2011-10-27.
4. "First Swype-enabled smartphone coming to Verizon in the Omnia II". Geek.com. 2009-11-24. Archived from the original on 2009-11-28. Retrieved 2012-04-03.
5. Arrington, Michael (2011-10-06). "Nuance To Acquire Swype For $100+ Million « Uncrunched". Uncrunched.com. Archived from the original on 2013-04-28. Retrieved 2011-10-27.
6. "Swype Keyboard now discontinued". GSM Arena. February 20, 2018. Retrieved February 20, 2018.
7. "Tech Crunch 50 Swype Presentation". Blip.tv. Archived from the original on 2008-10-22. Retrieved 2011-10-27.
8. Rafe Needleman, Move over T9, here comes Swype Archived 2011-05-10 at the Wayback Machine, CNet News, 9 September 2008
9. "Samsung Mobile And Swype Set New Guinness World Record" (Press release). Samsung USA. March 22, 2010. Archived from the original on 2010-03-26. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
10. "Swype user sets Guinness World Record for texting speed" (Press release). TechCrunch. March 22, 2010. Retrieved November 30, 2012.
11. "Salford woman makes bid for fastest text title". BBC News. August 24, 2010. Retrieved June 20, 2011.
12. "Teen Breaks Record for Fastest Text". CNN News. May 15, 2014. Retrieved April 26, 2017.
13. "Swype | Supported Languages". Archived from the original on 19 May 2013. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
14. Jared Newman (2013-07-01). "50 Best Android Apps for 2013". Time. Retrieved June 30, 2013.

External links

• United States Patent 7,098,896. C. Kushler, R. Marsden, "System and method for continuous stroke word-based text input" Archived 2021-01-26 at the Wayback Machine
• United States Patent 7,250,938. D. Kirkland, D. Kumhyr, E. Ratliff, K. Smith, "System and method for improved user input on personal computing devices"