One of the best things that Android has had since its inception lies in its customization capabilities. With the right apps you can do practically anything to the system. And it is almost literally everything if you get into the land of the root. And among the many customization options, we have always had keyboards for all tastes.
Specific keyboards for emojis, keyboards with applicable themes, compact keyboards, floating keyboards. Almost everything. And I, many years ago, found the right one for me. One that released writing with sliding and that became for me the only and indisputable one. The “problem” with him is that he died. Quote “problem” because I paid for it, and therefore I still have it on my Google Play. I speak, naturally, of Swype.
The Android keyboard with which I feel at home
I can promise and I promise that I have tried Android keyboards to bore the most geek on this topic, and I have even bought many of them. But none like Swype. Imagine what body I was left with when, in February 2018, it was announced that the development team was leaving the project and that it was left on Github for whoever wanted to continue it. Stranded on the beach with no one to throw a bucket of water over him.
Swype started it all in swipe, and it’s fair to say that. Until then I had never felt comfortable with full keyboards. I really missed the T9 from my Nokia N81, the last phone I had before jumping to Android with the HTC Hero, and touch keyboards just didn’t seem like it for me. But with Swype I regained my ease typingAnd with it hope.
After Swype came others such as ‘Flow’ that was added to Swiftkey when seeing that the model of the first prevailed. Gboard also decided to allow swipe typing, and later it came to other keyboards available in the Google store. But none, and this is a strictly personal opinion, like Swype. So the first time I switched phones after he died, what I suffered most was because I was going to lose Swype.
But what was my surprise when in the restoration of apps, Google Play reinstalled it for me. And it worked like the first day, although with some downside, such as having lost synchronization through the cloud. So with each reinstall, my dictionary of words has been disappearing. Every damn time. But still, she has made it up to me.
However, it seems that the light in the tunnel is beginning to fade and that it will soon be completely dark. One of the problems that Swype has is that it is in English when it is installed, and you need to download the Spanish language to change it to your native language. That download occurs from the cloud, and the last few times it has given me quite a few failures. A few days ago, in fact, I tried to install Swype on my wife’s mobile, using my Google Play account, and I couldn’t get the list of languages to appear.
In my last changes of mobile I have had similar failures, although in the end I have managed to let me download the language. But all this points to one thing, that that part of the installation, essential to continue using Swype if you are neither an English speaker nor an ‘English writer’ (sorry), can also die from one moment to another. Then I’ll probably have to jump to Swiftkey or Gboard. But as I have already told you, with none I have had the same sensations as with Swype.
And this is the sad story of a historical Android user who feels infinitely more comfortable using a third-party keyboard that is officially dead. More than four years go now and I haven’t found a replacement yet. What can we do.
