Popular Android keyboard app SwiftKey is finally out of beta. The newest version (4.3) adds keyboard layouts that can be resized and moved anywhere on a device, and the app also now offers a Canadian English option.
SwiftKey’s new “Layouts for Living” version 4.3 does away with the separate tablet-only version, and instead introduces three new keyboard modes which can be undocked, moved and resized for any device:
Compact mode shrinks the keyboard for users of larger phones, to allow for easier one-handed typing or gesture typing using SwiftKey Flow. Compact mode lets you slie the keyboard up and down the screen to a more comfortable location, or move it like a floating window anywhere on the screen.
Full mode places keys closer together to mimic two-handed typing on a physical keyboard–including left-right cursor control keys, and a backspace key above the “Enter” key.
Thumb mode splits the keyboard in two to facilitate faster, more comfortable typing with both thumbs.
Version 4.3 also uses SwiftKey Cloud, a feature introduced in SwiftKey 4.2 that stores your personal language profile in the cloud (on remote web servers), so that your latest language profile settings are accessible on any phone or device.
This update also introduces a Canadian English language model for the first time, including local place names and personalities in Canada. For example, it understands Canadian users who type “Stephen” will be more likely than American English users to be talking about Prime Minister Stephen Harper than author Stephen King.
SwiftKey has been available in beta on Google Play and the Amazon App Store for a while, and already claims over 100,000 users. The app is normally $3.99 but is currently 50% off in the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Australia, Russia and New Zealand as part of Google’s autumn promotion.
If you’d like to see how SwiftKey works before you try it, check out Android Central’s demo video.
