Android: Text Entry

For a while now I've been aware that the Droid is the fabled "iPhone killer."  The conventional wisdom disagrees, claiming that no one has toppled the iPhone yet, especially with the hot new one coming out.  The Droid's hardware stacks up nicely against the iPhone 3G, even the 3GS, but of course the real magic is in the software.  In this case, text entry.

The iPhone wasn't the first smartphone to do an onscreen keyboard, but it was the first phone to do it well.  The keys were large (especially in landscape mode) and could handle large thumbs.  It could guess what you were trying to type before you were even finished with the word.  People told me that once you got the hang of it, it worked quite well.

Well, naturally, Android has an onscreen keyboard too, and its prediction ability has been called the best in the industry.  But the Droid also has a slide-out physical keyboard which is a necessity for me.  I used to say there's no replacement for a true tactile keyboard--something you can't get on an iPhone.  But Android isn't done.

There's a third-party app called AnySoftKeyboard which replaces Android's onscreen keyboard.  Why is this useful?  Because it lets you write in Cyrillic.  And Hebrew.  And most other alternate character sets.  Even different English keyboards, like DVORAK.  You can get it from the Market.  For free.

But wait there's more.  Android 2.1 brought us speech-to-text.  And it's fast, because you speak faster than you can type (a lot faster).  When I'm texting someone from my phone, I find myself hitting the microphone button more often than not.  This seemed like the ultimate solution: "hands-free texting."  But maybe there's something even better.

Introducing Swype.  You don't have to press buttons any more; just run your finger over the keyboard and it knows what you want to say.

The company behind this awesomeness, Swype, Inc., has been keeping its cards very close to its chest, only offering the technology as an OEM solution to individual manufacturers.  The truth is it's a brilliant business model; why give away your software for free when Motorola will pay hefty licensing fees instead?  Sadly, that meant I couldn't get this awesome program on my Droid--until now.

Swype is currently doing an open public beta for any Android phone.  Simply visit here and sign up: http://beta.swype.com/.  The site says the beta will only be available for "a few days," so get it quick.

I never thought text input could be this sexy.

J<