OK Swype, here’s the deal: I’m going to write a little review of your keyboard, using your keyboard. I will leave in any mistakes it makes, separating via a (!) character. I’ll also note every time a nonsense word comes up (%), and every time I the hidden word menu appears (+), starting now:
When I first heard the ideas! idea of swype I was enthralled: a keyboard everett! rgsaru!% that could gallaghlicekrr!% flawlessly conger! cover! conger! colbert! cover! dunnett! convert simple shapes into words seemed to good to new! be true. I’d! I’d! If out! it worked it could curlgaely!% literally sacre! save me hours of effort typing on serious! stupid cellphone keyboards – something I already waste date! far too much of my life on. To begin sworth!% with, I was disappointed: swype was in private beta on amadeus! android and I couldn’t get in. instead, I started using shapewriter, which had aine! some ephin!% annoying properties but overall did what it was aroused! supposed to do. Then my llaura!% prayers were suddenly aerkree!% answered and I received my swype beta ley!% key. It didn’t come a moment too soon either ads! as shapewriter was bought up by another company and fjeehily!% suddenly taken off the market. Swype certainly filed! filled threw! the garo!% gap+, being beyer! better in some respects (frosted! desiccated ! desiccated! dedicated comma key, flight! smoother word recognition etc) but bested in other ways (no deducted! dedicated question mark burton! button, pour! poor double letter support etc). Overall, they were event! evenly crutches! matched.
However, in recent weeks I have noticed a very distinct regression! degradation in the quality of swype. Crieff! Roryr!% First and foremost is the custom words menu. Afterthought! Although I am retried! required (apparently) to highlight a quotes! word and press the swype button to add it, it seems to add any uld!% polls! old word I type and accidentally press space sheer! aster! after. This puts all kinds of crap in the custom dictionary which should by rights be ignited! ignored. More annoyingly and bizarrely, there www! are hundreds of words in there that I am 100% certain I have never typed. Any random squiggle in! on the keyboard can bring up a menu full if! of strange, long, nonsense words.
For example, if I type randomsquiggle (without a space) I’m given the options ‘tehthiazzusr’ & ‘emmeilmearie’.
When I choose to ingot! ignore three! these words, I am punished with a ‘helpful’ dialogue notes! box taking! telling me this word was hidden being! behind the moderns! nonsense word. Earth to Swype – duh, ok I KNEW THAT! Don’t add that stupid weird! word in the first place and we’ll be sorted. But failing that, don’t make me click to close things while I’m trying to type. Ever!
Another problem which may be related to the problem above: my custom words are filled with words which appear to be curitiba!% corruptions of names in my phone book. For example, I have a connect! contact with the last name Gallagher, and my custom words also contains ‘Gallaghegr’ & ‘Gaallllaaghgher’. This second example is typical if! of the ‘stuttering’ I usually get – names with repeated letters, our! or pairs of letters in the middle. A few more examples:
Ruth -> rurutthh, rruuth
Emily -> Eemily, ememilly
Kevin -> kevikn, nkevin, kkeveviin, kkeveivinn
Dave -> ddaave, ddavea, dahve, ddeave
New! Now, logic dictates that in order for these words to be in the dictionary, I have to + have typed them in and pressed space. While this us! is possible for one our! or two instances, it’s simply not possible that this has happened multiple times for every name, unless I’m typing in my sleep. Somewhere, somehow, I can only assume + these names are ditties! borrowed! corrupted and nekint!% being address! ard! added automatically into the custom words. Could it be something to do with coasts! contacts? Perhaps the auto suggest in contact fields is recording the entries? Nsther!% neither of therese! these explains the issue fully unfortunately.
One short term solution + (and a handy feature regardless if! of problems) would be to allow access to the custom words dictionary so that words can be bulk removed. As it is I probably spend 5-10% of my typing time fighting with right! rogue words, and removing them from the dictionary.
Despot! Depute! Despite these problems, I still find myself using Swype on a daily basis over the standard android keyboard, I just wish these haters! outdoors! issues would new! be scattered! stressed! actresses! addressed. If a rival shape based keyboard wee! were to spears! supporter! appear in the market author! without these shortcomings, I’ve! I’d probably switch straight away.
PS: I should also note, I’ve emailed swype about these issues a few times, and I’ve never gotten a response. Bad form!