Improved Flow (swipe) feature in SwiftKey for Android
Hello everyone,
We are rolling out a new Flow experience for SwiftKey for Android. The idea of this change is that when Flowing (aka "swipe" gesture typing), we want to provide you with more choices to insert the word you wanted.
How this new Flow feature will work:
You Flow a word. Instead of the prediction getting automatically inserted you will be shown three possible candidates. You can then take one of the following 3 actions:
- Select one of the three predictions by selecting the word. This will insert the word and give you a space
- Continue Flowing your next word - this will insert the middle prediction and auto add a space for you
- Start tap typing. This will also insert the middle prediction and also auto add a space for you.
Basically this is ensure that if the wrong word is predicted, you can easily change it by tapping one of the three predictions. But if it is correct, you can keep on Flowing or tapping just as before and it will use that middle prediction.
Let us know your thoughts on this new change in the comments below.
Cheers,
Ryan, SwiftKey Community Manager
Also, pushing out an obviously buggy implementation of this new Flow method to the final version of the app was downright incompetent.
Don't know how to quote in this new forum. The old one was so much better.
Frank Gore said:
- Prioritize Corrections (new method): for new users or for those who need assistance with swiping
This is interesting. I'm a hardcore swiper. I don't do anything else but swiping all day long. Why is it that I've always preferred the Google keyboard and Swype to Swiftkey when it comes to swiping? One reason was this kind of thing. I know a lot of words at least in my language that need correction, no matter how accurate you are. It may vary concerning the individual language and vocabulary though, I don't know.
The most successful swipe keyboards don't do this prediction thing of the former Swiftkey version. Why? Are they all stupid, a step behind?
Yes, everyone else was a step behind. But after this update everyone is ahead. Me myself have very few errors when swiping in Norwegian, Spanish and English. Very frustrating to always have to confirm a word that is correct. The predictions was awesome, but now it's pretty much useless.
And if you are so happy, why did you make an account for writing in this forum?
@Po8 I don't much care why other keyboard apps work the way they do. All I know is SwiftKey worked in a way that made me more efficient. If the only justification for this change is "well everyone else does it this way, too", then that's a terrible excuse. If every app did everything exactly the same way, there'd be no innovation.
And once again, none of that matters. What matters is it used to be one way, and now SwiftKey is forcing some new way upon everyone against their will. If they want to make it an option that can be turned off, fine. Otherwise, they can go the way of Pebble and Google Wave for all I care.
@Egil Bradley: I'm not happy. I came here because I do care about keyboards a lot. I came here because this new flow feature makes me want to give SwiftKey a chance again.
I think the deafening silence combined with the unannounced "improvement" just feeds the "we got sued by WordLogic and this is part of the settlement" theory. I think the employees cannot legally come out and say that of course, because it's part of the confidential settlement. But nobody can be that clueless otherwise.
Hey everybody! Swiftmoji has auto space!
Thanks @RevRagnarok
I had no idea about that lawsuit, and it sounds like that might be the reason.
That really sucks, but at least now I can understand why SwiftKey isn't responding to the issue.
I guess the solution will be to install an older version.
@
Egil Bradley
Which version works with the AutoSpace and the correct prediction ? Where to download ?
Auto-space doesn't work for me after update... How to fix it?
@Apostolos Tsiatsos I haven't done it yet myself. Was still waiting for an answer from SwiftKey, but heard 6.5.3.35 should work. Possible to download from APK mirror sites, but can't give any links here.
You did a big step backwards with this update.
Please insert the option to have the same behavior as before (automatic space that triggers the prediction for the next word) or add an option to have two lines: one for the alternatives to the current work and one for the predictions of the next one given the last flowed word.
If you won't do any of the above, I'll have no reason to use your software over the others...
@ Nicola Piccinini
I can confirm that version 6.5.3.35 works perfectly. Google search "Swiftkey 6.5.3.35".
+ I think that is a mistake to sacrifice the prediction of the next word just not to press backspace when you get a word wrong. The percentage of well predicted words is very high.
+ it has bugs. It seems it works well almost everywhere but in chrome search bar sometimes a word is erased or the very first word you type is substituted by the original prediction that appeared before you flowed the word
I've honestly tried every single other keyboard between yesterday and today and nothing compares to what SwiftKey WAS.
Been using it as long as I can remember, but this update makes in unbearable!
@Ryan P - Can we PLEASE get an update from Swiftkey to say if you are going to do anything about this?
Like lots of others, I'm subscribed to this thread waiting to hear from you to say if you will be addressing this or not so I can decide if I need to find an alternative product.
I get about 5-10 emails a day from other people saying how much they hate the change, and want to unsubscribe, but I don't want to miss an announcement from you.
So if you could please just communicate and say "we hear you, we're working on it", or "we've listened, but we disagree", so that this can be put to bed.
Add me to that list, Chris! I would love to unsubscribe from this thread, but I'm also waiting to hear something.
PLEASE tell us what your plan is, whether it's to change it back/add that option, or whether you're going to keep the new system for whatever reason.
@Travis: a new SwiftKey Beta update came out today. I tested it and it's still broken (specifically the top bar when flowing: they're still corrections for the flowed word rather than predictions for the next word).
Thanks @RevRagnarok. I had no clue about the lawsuit but now the change makes total sense to me. With so many customers complaining, you'd figure they'd at least give us the OPTION of reverting back to the old method.
@Apostolos Tsiatsos, if we download the old APK, won't the Play Store automatically update the app with the new version anyway?
@Wparks82 Just turn off auto-updating for SwiftKey inside the Play Store app immediately after you install the old version.
SwiftKey Keyboard has gained about 1000 1-star reviews since this fiasco began. I haven't been keeping track of 2- and 3-star reviews, though... a lot of unhappy people are only downgrading to 2- or 3-stars.
Please bring back predictions. Thanks
The new beta version says, we'll Autospace after flow.
I checked, it didn't. Has anyone got the Autospace working?
@Gauravmtulsiani why bother with beta? I have the version 6.5.3.35 working fine for me and have disabled autoupdate. Problem solved :)
I have 6.5.4.21 saved :-)
Works fine. Was just checking the description of the new update. Felt positive about it. But then it's not what it says.
Tried the new beta when i read about the update here, but it doesn't work for me either.
Checked the settings, and couldn't find an option for it either.
It might be that they have an actual bug this time, so hoping they actually are going to fix it (but after reading what they wrote on this thread i'm guessing they just don't understand the issue).
please make it optional and disabled by default.. my flow now is very slower and frustrating :(
Since it's been more than a month without any real progress even after 267 comments in this thread + Play Store reviews + social media posts, I've used ZipSigner to re-sign the v6.5.3.35 APK file (the last good version) so it's permanently detached from the Play Store and won't ask to update.
Good luck all.
@Jackie Chun
A link ?
@Apostolos Tsiatsos
ZipSigner is an app available on the Play Store that can re-sign an APK file so it'll never try to update. You don't need a separate SK download.