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Posted by futohq 2 days ago

FUTO Swipe – A new swipe typing model(swipe.futo.tech)
703 points | 249 commentspage 7
BosunoB 2 days ago|
I don't really get swiping. It's always going to be quicker and more efficient to type because you can use both hands, right? And you don't have to swipe your finger across the screen?

Still going strong with Fleksy even though you can't even download it anymore.

xp84 2 days ago||
Sometimes you have one hand full. When my kids were small, especially, I REALLY benefited from swipe typing. I still often use it when I am holding something in one hand.
nutjob2 2 days ago|||
Maybe for you personally, but in a general sense I don't see how you can hold a phone and "use both hands" to type individual keys.

One notable advantage of swiping is that you can be quite loose with each single swipe gesture whereas you have to hit the right key many times for each word. That swipe is also usually much quicker than finding multiple keys for most people.

You preferences may reflect youth, eyesight, finger size, co-ordination, phone case usage or other advantages most people don't have.

ktrnka 2 days ago|||
It traces back to accessibility. Think of folks with shaky hands. The screen helps to stabilize the tremors. A similar thing applies to typing on a bumpy bus or while walking.

That said, it also depends on screen size. Back when Swype first became popular, Android screen sizes ranged from 3-5". That was another factor driving it's popularity back in the day.

Definitely not for everyone or in every situation though

backscratches 1 day ago|||
Swiping with one finger is faster than typing with two in my experience. But you can have best of both worlds, my keyboard let's me swipe with two fingers at the same time (heliboard on f-droid)
egypturnash 2 days ago||
If you have long nails then two thumbs on a tiny phone keyboard are pretty much impossible.
eviks 2 days ago||
This is building on quick sand, a truly new model would not use the same dumb old grid that's neither fit for hands nor for fingers. But kudos for the openness!
h4kunamata 2 days ago||
FUTO is terrible!

I run GOS and have tried it, you spend more time deleting works than actually using it.

I was forced to install Google GBoard instead and revoke its network access. Gboard swipe typing works flawlessly, FUTO still an Alpha project.

TranquilMarmot 2 days ago||
Seems like this is a new swipe model, though, so it should be more comparable. I also had to switch back to GBoard on GrapheneOS since I was spending more time fixing typos than actually typing with FUTO but I'm willing to give it another shot.
KomoD 2 days ago|||
> Gboard swipe typing works flawlessly, FUTO still an Alpha project

I agree. I find that swipe typing on Gboard feels much better than FUTO's because I think it adapts to my typing style. I tried FUTO about six months ago, and it was a bit frustrating so I switched back to Gboard. Hopefully, it has improved since then, but I haven't checked.

gertop 2 days ago||
> Hopefully, it has improved since then, but I haven't checked.

Good news then because you're currently in a thread about how FUTO has improved!

KomoD 2 days ago||
Just because they say so doesn't necessarily make it true, which is why I included the "hopefully" and "haven't checked".
copper-float 2 days ago||
The early iterations of swipe were very inaccurate, yes. But the newest swipe release mentioned here is much more mature.

It's not perfect, but it's practically on par with GBoard aside from a few blips here and there. It's enough for me to get rid of GBoard for good, and not consider reinstalling it.

kayson 2 days ago||
I've been using it for a while. The insistence of keyboards on having a large bar of autocorrect suggestions taking valuable vertical space annoys me to no end.

I really liked using Fleksy which let you swipe up and down on the keyboard to change autocorrect results, including adding words to your dictionary. I'm still not sure if FUTO even has that option.

functionmouse 2 days ago||
seems to be really good
oehtXRwMkIs 2 days ago||
demo seems worse than heliboard
prism56 2 days ago|
I've used both extensively and it's a fair bit better, but was significantly worse preupdate
Jnr 2 days ago||
Can we please get this for iPhone? Their keyboard is extremely imprecise, I have to go back and correct each sentence.
jordand 2 days ago||
I used the FUTO keyboard for a few months but ditched it as the word suggestions were either odd or random (one example: I'd write 'Jordan' and it would always suggest 'Peterson' as the next word), and I'd got a weirdly passive aggressive prompt saying I should really purchase a license. Went back to the de-Googled Android keyboard in GrapheneOS
drewstiff 2 days ago||
Following "Jordan" with "Peterson" doesn't seem random in the slightest
jordand 2 days ago||
It never had my own surname as a suggestion, and there's many people, places and things called 'Jordan' in some way
OsrsNeedsf2P 2 days ago||
So you want it to randomly pick the next word, rather than suggest the most common word?
jordand 2 days ago||
The most common word I entered after my forename is my surname. All other keyboards handled this fine, but FUTO didn't. That's what's odd
stavros 2 days ago||
I think that, for it to learn a word, you need to actually press the middle suggestion, not just space. I'm not sure, though. Couldn't you add your surname as a custom word?
copper-float 2 days ago||
Just tried typing Jordan on mine, and my suggestions were "on", "is", and the Jordanian flag. So I'm pretty sure you had to have typed the words "Jordan Peterson" before for it to make that association.

The donation prompt can permanently disabled with two taps, so I'm not sure why that'd be a reason to abandon it. It's a complete non-issue.

"You've been using FUTO keyboard for X days. If you find this app useful, please consider paying to support future development.

FUTO is dedicated to making good software that doesn't abuse you. This app will never serve ads or collect your personal data."

I don't mean to be rude here, but this is an extremely bland, mild message. There's nothing passive aggressive about it in any way. What do you find aggressive about this?

selfawareMammal 2 days ago||
I wrote Hola in spanish and got holocaust
windyan 2 days ago|
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