Swype’s innovative keyboard has long been a great alternative to the Android stock keyboard on many phones, but it’s always been limited in what phones can run the keyboard software. Now, Swype is updating its software’s Android beta to include support for all Android smartphones.
The beta program has opened up to anyone able to type in a little user information (register here). That means you can be running the official version of Swype in just a couple of minutes.
The update also includes some much-awaited features, such as support for Double-Tap-to-Edit, Cursor Restore, and Voice-to-Text (requires Google Voice Search be included in your system firmware). If Swype chooses a wrong word, just tap the word twice to bring up the word choice window, pick the correct word, and the cursor will return to wherever it was before. The magic of Double-Tap-to-Edit is a fantastic upgrade to Swype’s current beta.
Currently, Voice-to-Text requires that you have Google Voice Search pre-integrated into your ROM for the feature to work. However, Swype’s Brian Resnick wrote, “we are working to adapt our existing code to support versions of Voice Search downloaded from the market, as well as other voice search providers, in our next update.”
Other features coming with the update include support HVGA, WVGA, and WVGA854 Resolution displays. Luckily, the software will detect this automatically. Languages for text input are limited to English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, and French (which is the most recent addition).
Register with an email address you can access via your mobile and Swype will send you a link to download the latest beta, version 2.15.56.14870 for Android.
Looking for more of the latest Android software news and reviews? You’ll want to check out Google Announces Update to Mobile Maps and Android’s Skype and Facebook Apps Get Updated
