SwitfKey has definitely been busy. Today it announced an update that may not be major in version number or appearance but is quite the big thing in experience. The new SwiftKey promises to be faster, coming quickly when you need it and quickly getting out of your way when you’re done. It has also expanded its roster of supported languages to 81, adding 12 new languages from Indo-Aryan regions to that ever-growing list.
Virtual keyboards, fancy as they are, shouldn’t be the center of our attention when in use. They should be comfortable to use and quick to come and go as the case may be. That is why SwiftKey has been hard at work at improving the core performance of their app. In this latest update, the developers promise several speed ups across the board. The keyboard appears 15 to 20 percent faster, both from a fresh install and from subsequent uses. It also disappears 20 to 30 percent faster, so you have less waiting time after you’ve finished typing. The keyboard also refreshes itself faster, so switching between fields is 15 to even 50 percent quicker.
Keyboards are also only as good as the languages they support and while English might be the lingua franca, there are many users that would prefer and even need to use their native tongues. That is why virtual keyboard makers are on a race to support as many languages as they can. For this round, SwiftKey has added 12 more to its team, coming from Indian and Indo-Aryan languages. These include Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Nepali, and Sinhala. But this language support isn’t just your ordinary keyboard language support either. Instead of just switching between keyboard languages, SwiftKey actually allows you to use multiple ones in what they call the “multilingual typing” feature.
The SwiftKey update is now available on Google Play Store and should be rolling out to users already. Those who haven’t tried it yet, the keyboard is free to download and use, as SwiftKey switched to a freemium business model in June.
SOURCE: SwiftKey