Swype is the virtual keyboard device that replaces the original keyboard that comes along with various mobile devices. I have been hearing about Swype from Gina Trapani for long time but always thought, how great can one keyboard be over the existing one. I had to try for myself and in just 2 tries I fell in love with this brilliant piece of software.

Typing on mobile devices has never been my strong point, I would always spend a lot of time figuring out where the keys are and a simple text message reply will take up to 4 minutes. T9 was a great help and I still consider it better then most of the physical qwerty keyboards that come along with mobile devices. iPhones soft keyboard was improvement over all and Android’s keyboard was better but Swype takes the experience to a new level.

Swype is developed by the same person who developed T9. In Swype you do not lift your fingers to type but move them in a pattern such that it joins all the letters of intended word you wanted to type. Swype recognizes the pattern and types in that word for you. One does not have to necessarily spend extra time on the character he wants to input, just swiping over it does the trick. 

By eliminating the time spent on lifting the finger and putting it back, a greater amount of efficiency is achieved. Tracking of the path need not be accurate, Swype uses its extensive database of words to give you a closest match and its substitutes. It has increased my typing speed by more then twice and it promises to take the typing speed up to 40 words per minute. Just try this once and you will fall in love with the new way to type.

This also demonstrates the importance of open platform. Swype started developing for Windows phone first and now has included Android phones to its portfolio. By replacing the normal keyboard, my productivity on N1 has improved drastically. I believe, these kind of revolutionary products will push the Android platform ahead of iOs platform.