Earlier today SwiftKey launched the new version of their famous Android keyboard app on Google Play and the Amazon Appstore. SwiftKey 4.3 “Layouts for Living” offers many new features such as three new keyboard layouts and, as usual, it comes for free to all existing users.
Layouts for Living
The new SwiftKey version offers three keyboard layouts: Compact, Thumb and Full. Next to that, you can easily resize the keyboard and even unlock it, to freely move it around on the screen.
Compact
If you have a larger phone, it sometimes can be quite difficult to enter text while holding the phone in just one hand. Compact mode will decrease the width of the keyboard, giving you more screen estate and the possibility to easily type with one hand. Switching the keyboard from the right to the left side of the screen can be done with one click and makes this function perfect for both right- and left-handed people.
Thumb
Typing with your thumbs while holding a tablet or bigger phone in landscape mode can be quite difficult. SwiftKey’s Thumb-mode will split the keyboard in two parts, enabling fast and easy typing with your thumbs. With the new unlock function allowing you to freely move the keyboard to a position which suits your holding-style best, typing becomes very easy and fast.
Full
The Full layout is basically the classic SwiftKey layout. It features a full keyboard, with tablet users being able to activate an extended layout which is quite similar to a physical keyboard. The tablet version features all 4 cursor keys (up, down, left, right) in the numbers view.
In it’s latest release, SwiftKey combined the phone and tablet app to provide a “seamless experience across all device sizes”. I personally don’t feel like that was missing beforehand, but SwiftKey probably wants to promote one app instead of two. It’s still a minor “slap-in-the-face” for paying SwiftKey Tablet app owners, especially if the app was purchased during the last weeks.
Final Words
It’s nice to see that SwiftKey constantly improves their product, with the updates being free for existing users for quite some time and various versions. Although the new features are not huge, they might be really handy for people owning Android tablets and bigger phones.
Images courtesy of SwiftKey