Do you use the swipe to type feature on your phone?
Do you use the swipe to type feature on your phone?
Is this how most people type on mobile these days, drawing lines all over a keyboard instead of tapping the individual keys? I've never had an iPhone so I don't even know if they can do this natively, but I know you can switch keyboards at least, so it should still be an option if not.
TIL the creator of T9 predictive text also invented Swype
I never could get into it. I type like it's a keyboard I actually don't even look at the keyboard I am looking at the input field and glancing down if I have to. Swipe sucks for me and is way less accurate than my method and I actually have to focus on the keyboard just to have worse WPM. I also get pissed off cuz if my hands are at all wet the typing tries to swipe.
P.s. it's hilarious to me that this long existing android feature is treated like some unique cool thing when Apple finally adopts it 10 years later. Like wireless and fast charging. But yeah I'm lame cuz I have a green bubble and don't use stupid personalized emoji thing
I use it all the time, it's incredibly convenient. I've been using it for years now though, granted. The most annoying thing is when you have to go back and type out a word letter by letter because it's nowhere close to what you were looking for -- but that's also the alternative of not using Swype. So... Shrug
Yes, that's my preferred method
It often doesn't work well for very short words, or uncommon words and whenever I have to stop swiping to tap out individual words I feel like a time traveler being forced to use pre-historic tools.
I do now. I've been using OpenBoard for a few years after ditching the Google spyware keyboard, and recently I've learned about a fork of OB with gesture typing. It's perfect if I have just one hand available.
At first I never used it, always thought typing with two fingers was the fastest (and actually got me the result I wanted).
Nowadays I swipe 99% of the time on my Android phone and it is a lot faster. Especially when your phone learns the words you like to use. It's not perfect of course and you will have to correct some words down the line (it still sometimes refuses to swipe "Fuck"), but overall I'm faster with it.
Also super comfy for long and complex words when you just roughly swipe it and get the full word written there without errors.
Overall though I prefer to touch type on a proper keyboard on the PC, that's still the fastest :)
Reassuring to see the love for Swype in here. I'm still using Swype on Android. I've tried many other keyboards, gboard comes closest but still lacks some of the quality of life little features from Swype.
Permanently Deleted
Absolutely. Been doing that since my first Nexus phone. Without it, I find the mobile keyboard extremely unwieldy.
I use it all the time. Feel like a wizard when I type a paragraph in seconds.
Yes since when ever Swype was released.
When I got a pixel 7 pro, I was very sad to find out Swype dragon had been discontinued. The APK are still around, but I'm not sure I'm ready to root and or put a custom OS my pixel yet to get it installed.
I've been going back and forward between gboard and swift key. Both are orders of magnitude worse than Swype was at recognising traces for longer words. Blows my mind how Google and Microsoft still can't build something as good as decade old Swype.
Yep, it's so good you can even type without looking at the keyboard, like I just did.
Ish. I go back and forth between swiping and typing for no obvious reason that I can discern.
The only time I'm using it is when I have to type with one hand only.
That was the only way I type on my android phone with GBoard but now with KDE mobile I am back in the dark ages.
I have used swipe keyboard since 2011.
I switch between swiping and typing. It works pretty well most of the time.
Sometimes when I can't use both hands. Otherwise, I prefer typing.
Type.
Swipe is weird and I don't like it.
GBoard is great for swipe typing and a must have on all my phones. I also like the one-handed mode which lets you shrink and move the keyboard for easier reaching. I usually have it small, slightly higher up, and on the right side so I can type without having to stretch my thumb and can keep a firm grip on my popsocket. Recently sent an entire text message without looking at my phone while walking down the street.
I've tried it but I hate it. It feels weird. Unnatural. Unintuitive. I would also prefer a real, physical keyboard to a touch screen.
One handed or laying down or just lazy = swipe
I use it all the time, but I've recently got a new phone and it's taking a while for the autocorrect to get used to my swiping, so it has a fair few mistakes currently
I've used it for several years now, and I could never go back. It makes me shudder to think of trying to type out words by tapping on individual letters again. Swiping is so much faster.
Well I didn't use it before but Ur post made me try it out and ducking wow how well it works is actually amazing
I was an early adopter of T9 typing on my Nokia back in the day. When I finally got a smartphone, I found a keyboard app that had T9 as an option and used that. When Swype first came out, I couldn't believe that another typing system could actually beat the speed and ease of T9 typing.
I've always preferred to type in full words and sentences, and I'm a good speller, so most of the reasons other people don't like swipe typing don't apply to me.
I'm typing using a wild mix of swiping and typing...
I'm bilingual and the English keyboard is way better than the German... I have to type way more if I write in German. Which is quite annoying - therefore I tend to use a lot of English vocab when writing with my family because it is just plain faster.
I started using it with SwiftKey and when that went shit started using it with Gboard so probably 10 years...? If I have to do it cave man style it feels impossibly slow. My wife still types each individual letter out quite happily.
It's ironic because I used to have a BlackBerry back in the day and thought I wouldn't be able to cope without a physical keyboard
Almost always. I never really got the hang of tapping -- I don't write all that often on my phone, so I don't have the accuracy down. Swyping lets me use my general knowledge of the keyboard to make up for my poor accuracy.
I use it when I only have 1 free hand 😶🌫️
Good ol' Fruit Ninja typing. Love it!
Test test. Okay it's kinda faster... I'm gonna try to use it more often!
Always, it’s faster
Ever since I had a smart phone
Nope, typing this with buttons on a virtual keyboard right now! I mainly use a desktop for most of the day, so I just prefer using the same system on mobile too.
I started out using the Swype app back before it was a common feature. It works well for me and I've been using it ever since. The learning curve is not steep and it speeds up my typing back at least a factor of two.
Constantly! Probably like 30%-40% of my typing is one-handed by swiping.
No. I tried it but I wasn't patient enough to get it calibrated to my needs.
Yep, super helpful for one handed use, especially with how big phones are these days
Yes, even though my language makes it a bit frustrating to use at times.
When the stars align and my text mostly contains dictionary words, it can even be faster than typing on PC. However... my language is agglutinative, meaning that we like to add stuff to the end of our words to mean possession, direction, objective case, person, etc. That means that for every single unique case I need to add that modified word to the dictionary to be able to swipe it the next time. However, after a few years, it seems to be working really well : ).
I have never tried it but just typed this using it and 8 have to say I quite like it. Very good
Nah I just type. Faster for me
No I don't use it, never liked it
I used it for a while back when SwiftKey was good.
Fell out of the habit years ago, it never felt any faster for me.It's an option on iOS. I use the FUCK out of it on every device that I have, even on tablets (though only in portrait mode, and with a reduced keyboard.) Yeah sometimes we mis-swipe, and some words (like "mis-swipe!") are not going to be recognized. But you type the weird words, swipe the rest, and then fix any mistakes by tapping on the word suggestions as you go. Besides, it's not like you shouldn't read it over once when you're done. People like to blame autocorrect for their mistakes but fr what the heck happened to editing your shit??
So yes, I use swipe, and it's objectively more efficient so everyone should!
It's really cool for typing one-handed.
I switch. I'm typing this comment out key by key. But I swipe onehanded just as fast.
Been using it since it came out.
I don't use swiping motions to type, at most I've used it a few times over the years.
i only do regular "tap" typing
i tried swiping and its just annoyingly inaccururate (but i do switch off the auto correct, because it also sucks, and i switch between writing my native language, and english)
I use it whenever I'm typing with one hand only. It works very well IMO, on gboard at least.
I enabled it by accident once, can't say I understand how to pull it off!
Sausage fingers. Swiping is much more reliable than trying to hit the little squares...
I did use it but over the past months the input recognition got worse and worse so I switched to something completely different: thumbKey https://github.com/dessalines/thumb-key
Funny thing that I discovered it around the same time I switched to lemmy as it is developed by the same guy...
I've used it since it was available. I would say 90% or more of my typing is swipe.
i never do. im quite an old school mobile typer in general - i dont use any autocorrect features, barely use autocomplete word suggestions... i type with two fingers which are my left index finger and right thumb. call me crazy, but it works wonders for me, and whenever i display my mobile typing speed people are amazed. can definitely recommend trying to type without any assistance for a while because it can ultimately lead to some very strong results :3
I do. Google's Gboard even work well in multiple languages.
It took me a few days to get familiar until it's clicked. It's really convenience because you can easily type with 1 hand.
Think just pressing a few key and pick from the suggestion is equally fast, but I with swipe, I can type without looking at the screen.
I usually just type as I find swiping unreliable.
As a side note, I just got a new phone with advanced haptics. This is the first time typing on a touch screen feels responsive 😯
Yep. Used Swype way back in the day so I'm just used to it.@atocci
Yes, 100%, I use an iPhone 13 mini and iOS’s one-handed swipe keyboard (right handed swiping on right side singlehand keyboard mode) is my default way of messaging. It goes very fast and detects language changes very accurately as well!
I use both! Mostly tap, but I use swipe enough that I would miss it if the feature was suddenly missing.
First time I ever used this was about a million years ago using (I think) the first keyboard app to introduce this; 'Swype' on Android. Dedicated GBoard user for years now, but swiping to type is so fast and accurate...
Honestly no
By the time it was added to iPhones I was already entrenched enough in just tapping that I never bothered learning how to swipe type.
I’m a two handed typer though, so I can see the benefit with a single finger typing
No, haven't tried it. I use voice to text when possible, i.e. quiet environment, no nearby ppl to annoy.
I forgot that swipe to type was even a thing. Trying it now and it seems pretty good.
I don't, but I also tend to talk about stuff that tends to involve a lot of atypical names or words or slang that gets autocorrected to something wrong a lot when I use swipe, and I can't be arse to figure out how to get it to work for that stuff, so I just stick to typing it out most of the time. It just feels more natural for me.
Testing swipe to type. Fast when correct. But damn did i have to teepee so many times.
Edit: retype not teepee
I still use nintype even though the dev disappeared years ago. Simultaneous double swiping and a VERY good learning dictionary. You can hit like 80 wpm without much effort.
I find it to be much slower and less accurate than standard typing with autocorrect. I try from time to time for fun, or when I have only one hand available, but it's not something to be used day to day.
Not always. I'm not typing so fast.
This is the first time I try this. This is a lot of fun!
It’s usually more accurate for me and requires less energy since I don’t have to lift up my finger much.
I find it too hit or miss at the speed i want to swipe at. It usually has a hard time getting the word, so it would just be faster to type it even with all of the mistakes
From time to time yeah, I heard that with enough practice I should be able to type faster
Swipe to type always confused me, I just tapaway.
Depends on the keyboard. I'm currently using Florisboard and swipe is nigh unusable. Lol
There are also no suggestions and no autocorrect (even though i usually have it turned off anyway).
Wait, why am i using this again...?
Edit: i am now trying 8Vim. Oh god. Send help.
As with a few others I only really use it when I’m using the phone one handed. If I’m eating and want to reply. Otherwise two thumbs tapping away is quicker for me.
Honestly, I have never been able to do this. I guess I am terrible at typing.
I do if I need to type something really really quickly, but I still type normally if I'm trying to carefully format something with proper grammar and all that (like a Lemmy reply, for example!)
I thought it was going to be next level when I first saw it, maybe a decade ago. Tried it, did not like it at all.
Yep, although I tend to use a combination of typing and swiping. Mostly swiping though. SwiftKey keyboard ftw (Microsoft, I wish I could quit you).
I had to think about this for a bit but I think I do both a bit of swiping and typing with my thumbs. I think swiping is especially useful one handed, imo.
I feel like I'm much faster swiping.
Anecdotally, around me I'm the only one that swipes. I see a lot of my friends don't swipe, and have even had people ask me about it.
I still to this day hate touch only phones and wish I had physical keys again. That being said, I use swipe, and it makes things a lot more tolerable.
iPhones can do this natively now. I use it sometimes. It really depends on a lot of factors. How long is my message? How many hands are free? Do I feel patient right now?
Nope
Yes and I love it. Was so happy iOS added it natively
I only type when I forget I can swipe
Swiping can be useful if I have fake nails on but largely I just individually tap with my thumbs
I tried it once years ago and couldn't get into it, found it kept guessing everything wrong or I was using it wrong, not sure. But just recently I got a smartwatch and heard many people recommending it and on such a small screen, it's incredibly good at what it does. I may try it again on my phone soon as I'm starting to like it.
I have a Z Fold as my phone, so I tend to switch between tapping and swiping depending on if its open or closed. I can only really swipe on the smaller screen, and have to tap on the big one. It made me wonder what others do, because before this I can't remember the last time I tapped for anything other than correcting spelling of tougher words to swipe.
Yup, been using Google keyboard pretty reliably for 8 years or so, but still need to use popup options and proofread and make corrections. I find the voice "typing" faster and more accurate now, but don't want to speak to my phone when people are around.
I swipe and tap to type. It really depends on what I'm doing. If I'm typing one handed, swiping is really nice and super fast. I'll also swipe to type if my phone is on the table and I'm only typing with one finger. If I'm using both hands, I will generally tap to type.
Edit to add I used SwiftKeys on Android
For a long time, maybe since they introduced it until about 2 years ago, and then I feel like they really got the voice to text down, and I mostly use that now
I've never tried it before but wow... It's kinda interesting...
May play with it more now but it doesn't really feel faster to me.
I do more often then not and I’m on iOS
Yes, I have been using swipe typing since the Nokia N9, which had this feature. However, there was a gap in my use when the iPhone didn’t support custom keyboards. It wasn’t until they introduced the capability and implemented it natively that I started using swipe typing again.
I do when one handing my phone, but when I unfold it I use both thumbs usually
Could never get into it. I'm forever pausing to think mid-word or mid-sentence, and it doesn't seem to work well in that circumstance.
100%. I use a third party app called Nintype which actually lets you two-thumb swipe type - to my knowledge the only one that has this as a feature. It's so so much faster than single thumb swiping and peck typing once you get used to it. Sadly it's been abandoned by the dev, so I'll be gutted when whatever iOS version decides Nintype is too old and no longer supported
I mostly use the swipe method on my iPhone, yep
All the time, yes.
I used to use it all the time, but when I switched to a Dvorak layout it didn't seem as efficient as on QWERTY.
I have for years wouldn't go back
Yes. I was the last last person I knew to get a smart phone.
Swiping is the only way I can possibly type on a non-tactile keyboard. It works even better than I first expected.
The only time I've ever used swipe was when Nintype/Keyboard69 was still supported. The two finger swipe was the only time swipe could keep up with my tap typing speed, and sometimes exceed it, but since then nobody has come in and done anything as revolutionary with the typing game, and Nintype is simply too out of date and buggy, but man, I really miss it.
swipe for common 3+ letter words, tapping for unusual words and uncommon pronouns, and very short words. I guess I've learned what swipe is good at guessing and what it's bad at.
I do. Not exclusively, but more often than not.
I do but it causes so many words typos so for most stuff is fine but every once in a while it really makes a sentence
Yes, started using it about a year ago and it's amazing how much easier it is.
Excessively, yes. Most people look at me weirdly when I tell them I do, though, but I've grown quite fond of the swipe input method.
The only time I've ever used swipe was when Nintype/Keyboard69 was still supported. The two finger swipe was the only time swipe could keep up with my tap typing speed, and sometimes exceed it, but since then nobody has come in and done anything as revolutionary with the typing game, and Nintype is simply too out of date and buggy, but man, I really miss it.
I usually swipe but it doesn't always fill in the right word...so if I'm sending a long or time-sensitive message I just type it out.
Yes, I use it all the time, it really works well and I am much faster than typing
I use it when I'm typing one handed, but I'm also a bit of an oddball who uses the Dvorak keyboard on my phone, which comes with it's trade-offs.
For two-handed typing I like it a lot, with the vowels all on the left side of the screen I feel like I alternate between my left and right thumb pretty well.
But it does seem to make swipe typing a bit less accurate because all the vowels are all clustered together so for example bat/bot/bet/but/bit are all a bit closer together than they would be otherwise (although Gboard usually seems to a pretty good job of sorting it out from context)
iPhones can natively do swipe to text and I love the feature. It also seems to have improved accuracy as a result of the iOS 17 keyboard updates. I always find myself mixing swipe to text and regular typing together. I hardly even think about it really.
99% of the time I just tap the letters but maybe once in a blue moon I swipe in something. I'm closing in on 50 so it's probably just me being old
I'd love to, my phone doesn't support it, though. In the past I've used it every time.
I've been using it exclusively for nearly a decade at this point.
I tried it several times and couldn't get the hang of it. I'd always overshoot the character I was going for. I had a colleague who was amazingly fast with swiping to type.
Sometimes, but mostly I use tap to type. Usually swipe is accurate, but I don’t always want the risk that it’ll get something wrong and it’ll take longer to fix it than if I’d just typed it straight away.
I use it, and combining it with autocorrect and suggestions I find it really easy and fast to use.
Nope.
I tend to swipe (on Android btw) whenever I only have one hand available, and type when I have both. It works really well and barely ever comes up with a wrong with.
I run LineageOS on my phone so I sadly don't have that feature. I found it was easier for me to quickly reply to texts but I would still fall back to typing with 2 thumbs (as I am now) and now that I have no swype-esque keyboard I think I may be faster without it.
I use a hybrid. If I'm typing with both hands, and I need to be speedy I'll typically use regular typing, but if I'm just causally typing stuff out or only have one hand I'll use swipe. I like having the option