Ask any veteran Android user what the best keyboard is for their mobile devices and you will find that most will say SwiftKey without hesitation. SwiftKey has remained king of the Play Store since before Ican remember and has largely stayed ahead of its nearest competitor – Swype. At the time of writing this article, SwiftKey held the #2 spot on the top paid Android apps list behind Minecraft Pocket Edition and has over time lingered to and from only the top 3 spots. However, with the latest update SwiftKey has taken a turn towards a different strategy, they are going the freemium way.
Previously, a 30 day free trial period was on offer for those wishing to test out the app. if you wanted to keep the app permanently though, you would have to pay $4.00 for all the goodies. Now SwiftKey has adopted the freemium model for its application and offers the world’s best keyboard free of cost! “But why on Earth are they offering it for free?” you say? The company has chosen to make its money off of selling themes for the keyboard. Essentially, by eliminating the $4 barrier to entry, SwiftKey is relying on more people to get the application and spend on themes. That way, many more people have access to the app and the opportunity to raise higher revenue arises. This also would help to reduce the number of people with pirated or unofficial copies of the app.
Getting into the app itself, SwiftKey is hailed as the mind reading keyboard for its exceptional ability to predict text by using clever algorithms which learn how the user types. Aside from that, it offers what the company calls “Flow” typing. Basically, the user simply has to drag his finger across the letters on the keyboard and the desired word magically appears! This function is especially useful for one handed typing and is incredibly quick and precise. It takes a few minutes to get used to but once you get a hold of it, there is simply no turning back. As a plus, there is support for multiple language input as well.
Right now, SwiftKey is offering a free theme pack if you download the app. The offer is only for a limited time so take advantage of it and just hit the install button. On another note, SwiftKey will also be available for iOS in the near future with the release of iOS 8 so Apple fans too would get to enjoy this must have utility.
If you want us to cover SwiftKey or any other application in depth – both Android and ios, please let us know in the comments section. Also, if you have any suggestions, please feel free to comment.
Dude! You finally did the review then. Awesome man. Once i get my new phone swift keys will definitely be one of the first app’s i install. 🙂
That’s amazing!