I know, I know it sounds interesting..so, today I am sharing a list of features that makes the SwiftKey app not just a wonderful keyboard but also a great tool to increase your productivity.
1. Stunning Word Predictions
Predicting words to a T, this is perhaps one of the reasons that make Swiftkey stand up starkly among the rest. Give it a month or two (depends on how much time you spend on it) and the next thing you know, it will start predicting words and entire sentences accurately. Plus, you have everything at your fingertips. Need to add a word to the dictionary? No worries, tap on the middle slide in the prediction tray or hit the spacebar. The emoji prediction is an equally agile feature, wherein the apt emoji will crop up on the prediction bar just as you type in a keyword (cry, smile, pen, etc).
2. Sync Across Multiple Devices
Have you been in that situation where you got a new smartphone, but had to start all over again with word predictions..quite a bummer, right? Well, it’s not so big a hassle with Swiftkey as it stores the personal language model and settings so that users can seamlessly switch between devices, and the typing experience will remain the same. Head out to Settings > Account and enable the backup & sync option. Likewise, SwiftKey lets you personalize your language model by bringing in words from different social media platforms. Embarrassed of that particular word which keeps cropping up on the suggestion tray? Long tap on the word and remove the prediction.
3. Built-in Clipboard
SwiftKey is unassumingly smart when it comes to providing built-in features and one of the nifty tricks it included quite recently is the Clipboard. Whenever a text snippet is copied, this amazing keyboard app retains the copied text for up to an hour. So you have your time saved and also a less app to manage. And the remarkable thing about this feature is that it gives you the option to save copied snippets. Tap on the text and pin it, and you have the text at your disposal forever. Head over to Typing > Clipboard and enable the Remember copied items.
4. Swipe & Gestures
What good is a keyboard app if it has only one way of typing. SwiftKey supports an additional feature of getting your thoughts across which goes by the name Flow. All you need to do is drag your fingers over the various keys in a loop to form a word. But only one out of these two can be enabled at a given time. And as far as the prediction power of flow is concerned, the more you use it, the better it becomes.
5. Change Keyboard Layout & Size
Not just changing the way you type or swipe, this keyboard app further lets you change the keyboard size and layout. And trust me, in most phones with bigger displays these features can play a great role in reducing the hassle of typing with one hand. Open layout through the quick settings menu and choose the size of your choice. The thumb design is a killer layout if you are looking to boost your typing speed. And for the rest of us, who aren’t blessed with slender fingers, resizing the keyboard might just be the thing you are looking for. So depending on your finger type, you can have your keyboard in a bigger size or a tiny one.
6. Undock Keyboard
Swipe: Check.Resize: Check.Change the keyboard layout: Check.
How about undocking the keyboard? Well, if the keyboard in its usual place is a tad monotonous, why not have it in the middle. How, you might ask? Simple. Undock it. Access the quick settings and tap on Undock and enjoy the unique look of your keyboard. Incognito mode can be used when you don’t want SwiftKey to learn the words that you are typing. Did I just catch you with a sly smile on your face?
7. Cut the Long Story Short with Shortcuts
A relatively new SwiftKey feature, this one lets you save shortcuts to frequently used words. It works similar to Gboard’s personal dictionary. This smart feature can be found under clipboard’s Add a new clip. Just add in the text and its respective shortcut and the next time when you type in the abbreviation, SwiftKey will automatically bring up the expanded version in the prediction tray.
8. Change Long-Press Duration
So you feel that the accented characters are displayed a little too slow? Worry not, there’s an alternative in the SwiftKey settings where you can change the long-press duration to the speed that matches your style.
9. Arrow Keys
Have you ever faced that situation when you want the cursor to land at a particular location on the text, but it ends up at the place where you DIDN’T want it to…irritating right? Well, this neat feature lets you move the cursor in all four directions. Enable Arrow keys from the settings and enjoy the experience of seamlessly moving the cursor to the very place you wanted.
10. Quick Punctuation
Well, I must admit that not many of us follow the rules of punctuation in a friendly chat, but these prove to be extremely important when replying to chats or e-mails through phones. In such circumstances, it would really be great to have all the right tools at your disposal like the accented/special characters or even the minute details like the removal of whitespace before a period.
11. Add a Number Row
A dedicated number row is definitely not new in the world of keyboards but it certainly helps you escape the hassle of not having one. After all, we have seen the sizes of some of the smartphones these days and yes, some can be quite a piece. And if you are the owner of one such device, you will just love this one. The settings for this one is available under Typing > Keys.
12. Multilingual Support
The multilingual support of SwiftKey is huge and currently, the number of languages is hovering around 100+. So, for those who love mixing different languages while putting your thoughts across, this will be an added advantage. What’s more, you can enable and use up to five different languages at any given point of time. A single swipe on the space bar is all it takes to change the keyboard language. Brilliant, isn’t it?
13. Tons of Free Themes
This is one amazing feature that makes me adore SwiftKey. It has plenty of free themes… even ‘plenty’ might not come close to describing the theme library. You can select a somber theme if you want the keyboard to have a professional look or go for a super colorful one if you like a splash of color on your keyboard. The range is huge, and it won’t disappoint.
The SwiftKey Stats
The SwiftKey stats are only for you to see and it’s an amazing tableau of your writing style — the words that are mostly used, the vocab size or the emoji you use the most, etc. And above all, you can see the amount of time that you have saved while typing. I would say that it’s an interesting area for you to explore.
Which One’s your Favorite?
In short, Swiftkey is a brilliant app. Not only it learns to adapt to your writing style but also is way ahead in predicting the right word at the right time. I have reached a point where texting someone my home address means typing only a couple of letters. So, have you tried it out yet? What’s your favorite Swiftkey feature? The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.
