Wrio Keyboard for iOS Claims up to 70% Faster Typing Speed

Swiss startup Wrio has launched a new keyboard app for iOS which claims to speed up typing by between 20 and 70 percent compared to standard Qwerty layouts.

The developers of Wrio say they achieved this typing feat by throwing out the rulebook that says keys should be square, and instead adopting a honeycomb-like layout of hexagonal keys. This allows individual keys to be a little larger than usual, which reduces the incidence of mistyped characters.

Users will notice there's no typical spacebar in the Wrio keyboard either. This functionality is divided into two single space keys at the centre of the layout. The delete key has been removed, and users swipe from right to left to delete a character, holding the swipe at the end to continue deleting characters.

A swipe right restores deleted characters, and holding the swipe restores multiple characters. And instead of relying on shift keys which have also been removed, swiping up on a character types a capital version of it.

Eight of the most commonly used punctuation symbols can be found in two primary keyboard keys, which serve up a secondary symbol with a hold, a third with a hold and swipe up, and a fourth with a hold-swipe to the right.

Elsewhere, holding down on a key invokes any accented variations available for the character, while a new double-function key takes users to the secondary keyboard and swiping up on the same key takes them to the emoji deck.

Wrio also supports 30 languages, and boasts a custom user dictionary that learns what languages are regularly typed and makes predictions based on usage patterns.

The developers claim that after one or two weeks, users should be familiar enough with the Wrio keyboard to start making significant gains in typing speed over traditional layouts.

Wrio currently costs $2.99 on the App Store as part of a limited "40 percent off" introductory offer, and is available for iPhone and iPad. [Direct link]