I love Swype

Many many months ago I signed up to be part of a beta testing group for a phone application for Android phones called Swype.  I had all but forgotten about it until the other day I woke up to find an email in my inbox welcoming me to the beta test!

I downloaded Swype that night, watched the tutorial, and practiced for a few minutes.  I was not catching on and deciding that I needed to try it again the morning.  By lunchtime the next day, after reviewing some of the tutorials again, I was nearly an expert.

What the Swype keyboard looks like

If you haven't heard of Swype then you probably have no idea what I'm talking about.  It's basically a virtual keyboard for smart phones that allows you to drag your finger across letters instead of having to peck them out with your thumb.  You lift you finger at the end of the word and the program automatically inserts a space.  Then you just go to the next word.  If it's not sure of what word you swyped then it gives you a list of' "best guesses" to choose from. 

The blue line that you see on the keyboard in the picture above is showing you the outline of the letters that you swyped over.  (I was not spelling a word, since I was using my left hand to do that.)

In a few short days, Swype has completely changed how I type on my phone.  It is so much easier than pecking letter by letter and is widely accurate.  I have no doubt that it's going to catch on big time and I am thrilled to be part of the group of early users for the original Droid phone.  The beta is currently closed, but if you're interested you should still sign up. It was closed when I originally signed up too, but I was eventually invited and I am addicted! 

I can write longer texts, full blog posts, and more thoughtful emails, things that I didn't usually because of the time involved with thumb typing.  If you get an invite for Swype, I highly recommend that you give it a try.