When Swype was nice enough to give us the world’s first hands-on with their ultra-nifty alternative keyboard on the Android platform, I wasn’t about to leak the installation files. It’s just not my style. Now that someone else has gone and leaked them, though, I’m more or less obligated to show you how to get it up and running. I tell you, folks — this blogging thing is one endless inner conflict.
After coming up with an awesome name for their blog, the guys over at DroidMuff.in got their hands on a beta copy of Swype for Android and uploaded it for all to share. This specific installer won’t work on every Android handset — in fact, it won’t work on most. This one’s tailored to work with WVGA phones, so it’ll work fine on the likes of the Moto Droid and the Xperia X3, but not the Droid Eris or HTC Hero.
If you’re ready to dive in, here’s how to get it done:
- Download and install the Astro file manager from the Android Marketplace
- Download this zip file
- Unzip that file, which will give you a file called “[mfhs]Swype-SwypeReference-WVGA854-trial-release.0.35.3959.apk”
- Copy the APK file to your handset’s SD card
- On your Android handset, go to Settings > Applications > and check the box next to Unknown Sources
- Use Astro to browse for the apk file on your SD card, install it.
- Go to Settings > Language and Keyboard. Enable the Swype keyboard.
- You should now be able to switch between the standard keyboard and the Swype keyboard by tapping-and-holding on any text input field.
- Enjoy!
You’ve heard what we think of Swype, so be sure to tell us what you think down in the comments below.
[Thanks David!]
Does it work with the Nexus One?
Would love to try it out…
And I would love to try out the Nexus One. XD
Seems like if it works on the Droid it should work on the Nexus One.
Hell yeah! if you’ll see this unboxing video you can see on the 3 minute mark that the french guy is doing the ‘swype’ thing on his hands while doing the text: http://bit.ly/nexus-one-reactions-to-walkthrough
Although, we are still crossing our fingers that added sauce will arrive as the days to Nexus One countdown reaches its peak.
January 5 will surely be informative on the mountainview classroom..
I just installed it on my nexus one. It says the screen size is off, but it let me use it anyhow *shrug*
yup me too… it doesn’t work with nexus one… not supported coz of the screen size
Sounds awesome. But why do they need access to my personal information and what i type?
And when you enable the swype keyboard, it notifies you that this has something of a key-logger? What? why?
I think that’s Android letting you know that the application has the ability to do that. It may or may not be doing it.
I could see them wanting access to what you type (as it’s somewhat important, as it’s a key logger).
Why it needs your personal information, I don’t know.
That’s usually because it wants access to your address book for help spelling your contact’s names. Ever notice that “Jeshandra Jones” is known by auto-correct in Android?
It may also be used as a feedback loop to help train their algorithm.
Of course one can always dream of security and privacy scenarios where maybe transmitting this information is bad. Gotta weight the pros and cons.
http://www.traderbots.com
You seem like you know what you are doing and Im some what ignorant cause I cant figure it out. Can you help me download. I already downloaded the astro file but where do I download the zip
It *is* a keylogger, of the most basic type…one which logs your keystokes and places the corresponding characters at the current cursor position :)
Works on DROID well.
Agreed! I followed the instructions in less than 3 minutes had keyboard running; immediately typed about a 50 word note in no time at all! Will never go back to droid’s regular keyboard!
I keep downloading the zip and it says that the content is not supported on this phone, any help would be appreciated
Just installed it. I’ve read that it makes you anywhere from 10%-30% faster. Feels to me like I am at least 50% faster. Wow, I love it.
What exactly does it do?
Thanks.
Hi Claire! I’m Brett, from Hooked on Phonics, and we’d like to show you our introductory offer….
And before iphone fan boys jump in saying this is already on the iphone. NO, it’s NOT.
On the iphone you can only use it within their application which tries to mimic iphone’s notepad or messaging app. This keyboard is applied globally on Android, meaning every application can use it.
I believe it’s not wvga being able to use this keyboard. It’s just anything with Android 2.0 or above.
just installed it on my Milestone. It works really well. I’m very impressed.
This is absolutely amazing!
Got this up and running on my droid in a matter of a minute or two and LOVE LOVE LOVE it!
It’s one app my cheap ass would (will) actually be willing to pay for.
What is that number 40° on status bar?
Battery temperature, I guess.
That’s the weather app in Android 2.0 (Weather.com) that shows your home weather on the notification bar.
It’s from WeatherBug. By default it puts your local weather in the status bar. Pretty useful.
NM it is only available for wvga. It complains my screen size is not compatible on a Google ION.
That’s very sad. I tried it on my rooted, 2.0 MyTouch and I got the same thing.
i type faster on the physical keyboard haha
takes more concentration than typing on the keyboard too…don’t really see that much of a benefit.
better than the normal touch keyboard, but not better than typing on the physical keyboard.
You know, you could have just shortened those steps into “install this .apk” file, and most Android users who’re actually interested in tinkering with their sets would know what you’re talking about.
@mdmadph: I’m glad he put the full instructions there. I’m a…ahem…salesman, so, you know….
I’m also glad he put the full instructions.
I have been using “ShapeWriter” on Android for a couple of months. It’s fins for small words, but trying to swipe a long word become quite a challenge as you have to go at a certain speed and your fingertip obscures the view of the path to the next key(s).
Swype is hype, I suspect. ShapeWriter does a great job….but likely has the same physical / visual limitations that Swype will be suffering.
I tried shapewriter and gave up after about 3 minutes. Swype is MUCH better, at least so far.
It does long words just fine :) I trained it to do “Greenberg” and it gets it and now recognizes it. As a “test” I just did “testosterone” and it got it first try.
Thanks for the instructions! While “most Android users” may have known what you’re talking about, it’s great for those “few” who bought Droids.
I’m using swype now. Took a couple minutes to get adjusted, but I’m typing twice as fast with it.
while it’s really strange to type with one pointer finger instead of two thumbs… i like it a lot. it will take some getting used to, but it’s damn fast.
Love it on my droid, way too cool, thanks for posting it.
Anyone know if this would work on a cyanogen-modded G1?
Does look like it wont support G1, Magic or Hero. ShapeWriter does. I have used that & it seems to be much the same thing. You need the CPU running at top speed. It works well for short words.
Hey, uh, you know…the Nexus One just got rooted.
Also, there’s already an app that does this in the Android Market.
I’ve an error message. Doesn’t work with 480×320 screen. i’Ve a HTC Hero 1.5
Works on Moto’s Droid well. Nice tutorial. It’s a very different input method; without any practice, I’m at about 10% of my normal speed. With time, it could be fast, but it will take a lot of patience as i work to modify the method of typing I’ve been using for 40+ years! That said, I’m looking forward to working on it.
I installed on the Motorola Droid… seems very nifty… still learning to use it…. i like it so far!
Wow. I’m amazed at how much faster i am and how good a job it does of interpreting my imprecise, fumble-fingered actions.
These guys deserve big success.
Jeff Yablon
President & CEO
Answer Guy and Virtual VIP Computer Support, Business Change Coaching and Virtual Assistant Services
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Minor bug: why doesn’t it automatically put a space in after punctuation?
Too often I hit carriage return when I want to hit period. There is no reason why the carriage return key should be so large.
Also, entering acronyms like API is difficult if not impossible. Anybody know how to do this?
I can imagine in a few weeks I’ll have serious muscle memory for some words. I’ve been playing with it for a bit and already ‘the’ is almost instantaneous.
I’m having a little trouble finding ‘b’, ‘n’, and ‘m’ because they are hiding underneath my thumb but in a few days I’d imagine I’ll just know where they are under there.
If you touch the period and “swype” to the space, it will automatically insert the space.
If you “tap” in API (or other words it doesn’t know), it will remember them. I’ve yet to figure out how to make it remember to capitalize those words, though.
I may feel the need to flip my droid open again. Absolutely phenomenal.
*never* feel the need. ugh typo
Oh the irony.
I get an error when trying to install on Moto Droid that says “Parse Error” there is a problem parsing the package. I have tried with and without the .apk extension on the file as well as extracting on and off the device as well as installing with apkinstaller and astro…thoughts?
Swype is so amazing!!! I can’t even beleive how much faster I can text with Swype! I can be so sloppy and somehow it knows what I’m saying!
Does anyone know if this was intended to be a paid app or a freebie. If it’s supposed to be a paid app, I’m sure this post will do wonders for the moral of the developers working hard to complete it. TC = warez?
According to the Swype website (swypeinc.com), ” We did not release this software to the broader market, as our preferred business model is OEM preload of software on devices.”
See http://bit.ly/7iKTRP
Installed it on Droid. No install issues.
A few seconds of adjusting and i’m inputting? typing? swyping? text much faster. I mostly single finger hunt and peck… a horribly slow experience compared to 10 finger typing; this is an order of magnitude better.
sweet.
Yeah, I agree with most of the sentiment.. Swype is amazing. Glad I took the two minutes to install it :)
I would pay for this.
This thing seems so amazingly simple and fast to me that I had to do a few tests. I commented earlier about loving it, then saw subsequent comments about how people can type faster w/o it. I was shocked, so tested my own speed – mind you, after just toying with this thing for a little while today.
Here are my results after completing the following phrase w/o any typos: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”
Portrait (normal): Swype – 14 seconds, default droid soft keyboard – 20 seconds.
Landscape (sideways): Swype – 17 seconds, default droid soft keyboard- 30 seconds.
Droid Physical keyboard: 16 seconds.
Laptop keyboard: 5 seconds.
So it doesn’t appear to really be faster than what I can do on the droid physical keyboard – I was surprised by that because it “seems” faster. HOWEVER, I VERY RARELY use the touch screen for typing because I make so many typos and it slows me down. If I’m gonna flip the phone sideways to type then I just use the physical keyboard. NOW, I expect to use swype MOST of the time and certainly doing this with one hand instead of two is nice while leaving the phone in portrait position!
Now, if I could just figure out how to type as fast on my phone as I do on a regular keyboard I would be REALLY happy.
Any other commenter’s performed a test like this with similar or sharply different results?
-M
And Swype Inc just bought swype.com for 25K
http://domainshane.com/swype-inc-buys-swype-com-on-sedo-for-25k/
I’m an unknowledgable DROID (motorola) user.
I’m very interested in giving this SWYPE keyboard a go since my only complaint about the DROID has been my difficulty adjusting to the touch keyboard (using a two hand method…i do fine with one finger and with the slide-out keyboard)
I unzipped the file, but it didnt come out as an .apk — so I changed the file extension myself on my Mac. Then I loaded it onto the Droid, and it’s listed in Astro. But, what do i do from here? I don’t see anything about installation…
Please help!
I’m having the same issues. I’ve downloaded from multiple sources and simply can’t get it working. I select the file in Astro and I get prompted to go to the app manager, but the app manager is blank and it says it cant open the file.
It should be very easy if you open the browser on the droid, navigate to this article, download the file directly onto the droid. Once downloaded, click on the file name, it will give an option to extract – do so. No need to rename the extracted file. The other steps remain the same.
Hopefully this works for you. No secret steps involved! ;-)
-M
Michael, that did work. I think the problem had to do with my mac reformatting the file in some way.
Definately a good step towards competing with the iPhone. I think the android is really going to take off in this next year. We shall see!
took a little work to install properly (try the tutorial to get the swype keyboard on instead of the default). once it’s going, it’s super intuitive and really addictive. well done!
portrait soft keyboard, also for quick brown fox, 30 seconds
landscape physical keyboard, using two thumbs, 24 seconds
swype, 17 seconds
I’m slow with my thumbs and don’t use the physical keyboard enough to get fast, I expect I’ll get similar improvements with swype too so I hope to never have to get used to two thumb typing
Wow, thanks for the heads up. Installed on Droid and works phenomenally well, I am very impressed. Still prefer the physical keyboard, but this is not a close second.
err, should read “this is a close second.”
It’s too late, going to bed now.
I’ve been using a virtual keyboard called SlideIT for a while. This looks very similar. And I think SlideIT has been around for years !!!
Now I have found SlideIT for Android video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=229U0ZYPum8
http://mobiletextinput.com/Download.php
Swype was first invented back in 2001 (Canadian patent filed in July 01). SlideIT came along quite a while after that – we just took more time to perfect Swype and so it launched after SlideIT. -Swype co-founder.
Been playing with it for a little bit. Just not feeling it. I definitely type faster with the on screen keyboard. Another problem using the Droid is the high res screen. In landscape mode, using Swype is hard to use because the screen is too wide to use.
I’ve created a topic at Baduku. Share you opinion.
http://www.baduku.com/topics/swype-for-android-beta_262
If Swype is slower than tapping one letter at a time for you, then you probably just need a bit more practice. Watch the tutorial on Swype.com and try it again. The trick is to not pause between every word to see if it got it right – just trust Swype, and move on quickly from word to word. It gets very fast from there.
if you go to the swype.com site. swype has been in the works since 06-07.
Installed it on my droid, here are the results from above fox sentence test. (First time swype use)
15 Seconds – Android Portrait
16 Seconds – Android Landscape
10.5 Seconds – Android Physical Keyboard (2 Thumbs)
12 Seconds – Swype Portrait
15 Seconds – Swype Landscape
So overall, the physical is still the way to go for the fastest time, but since I just started using swype, it may end up being faster in the long run. For now, physical for long things, and swype portrait for short things.
Should have read the post more carefully. When I watched the video demo on the Eris I assumed that this leaked Beta worked there. Download and installed it on my Eris with no problem. Bring it up and “sorry, this version does not work with the 320×480 display on this device”. Hopefully the official release is soon. This looks like a really great keyboard…
I’m in love
just swyped this on the droid and I am loving it
it is amazingly fast and accurate
why wont it recognize anyone in my contact list???
I can’t figure out how to ‘install’ the file. When I use Astro, it just opens up a folder to a bunch of other files. Can someone help me? What am I doing wrong!
The app and directions – flawless. I like! TY
http://www.statsmogul.com/www.fishlabs.net – please take a look if you’re interested
Extraordinary. Been touch typing for nearly 50 years and probably produced 100,000+ pages of text in those years. It’s been very discouraging trying to get these old thumbs working on smartphones over the last decade.
After the ten minute tutorial I’m already as fast on the Swype as on the virtual android keyboard. Doubt I’ll ever match my typing speed on a standard keyboard, but this opens a wealth of possibilities for using the Droid for text entry.
I’m a Droid user and would love to give this a try. I have a couple of concerns, however. How difficult will this be to uninstall? What about updating in the future if the app finds its way into the Android Market?
uninstall the same way as installed through astro. tapping the file and uninstall. i am sure it will auto update through market as most apps do but since this is a trial per the app, there is no guarantee.