Popular third-party keyboard SwiftKey for iOS is being updated today with an interesting new feature called Tap Map, which gives an inside look at how the app works. With Tap Map, users can see how the SwiftKey AI adapts to their typing patterns to help them make fewer typos.
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The Tap Map, similar to our heatmap on SwiftKey Keyboard for Android, shows how SwiftKey uses artificial intelligence to adjust the keys on your keyboard 'behind the scenes' to better fit your typing style. For example, if you typically hit the right half of the F key when you're aiming for G, the shape of G on your Tap Map will probably be larger and skewed to the left.
SwiftKey is hoping users will share their different Tap Maps on Twitter, and has promised to give prizes to the tidiest and sloppiest SwiftKey users.
Today's SwiftKey update includes usage statistics, letting users see data on how much they've typed, how far they've Flow-ed, and how many words have been predicted and corrected. It also includes information on how much a user's productivity has been improved through the SwiftKey keyboard.
Along with the new usage information, there are also three new language packs available in SwiftKey, including Arabic, Hebrew, and Farsi.
SwiftKey can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Top Rated Comments
I've been using iOS since it was iPhone OS and the keyboard has got better and better. The lack of inline auto correction prompts is a deal breaker for me.
Example of what I mean:
unfortunately that's a problem on apples part
Bingo.
I think that a vast majority of the problems people have with third-party keyboards are problems that are Apple's responsibility to fix.
Example: I was excited to try Apple Pay on the first day I got the iPhone 6. I downloaded the Wells Fargo "activator" app to finish the Apple Pay activation process with my card which required that I enter the last four digits of my cell phone number.
I tapped on the field to enter the last four digits, the SwiftKey keyboard came up, and I proceeded to enter the digits but they did not appear in the field. I tried and tried. Finally, I got on MR and saw that other people were having the same problem. Turns out the only keyboard that would allow you to enter the text was the default system keyboard. That seems to me that it is Apple's problem to fix because the stock keyboard is able to work in certain situations that third-party keyboards cannot.
Holy crap, just reinstalled SwiftKey. I'm in love.
I like that Emojis are included. I like the key mapping better as well. I instantly disabled Swype.