New Swype now supports gestures

If you’re a Swype user, we’ve got some great news for you. A new version of the alternative Android keyboard is on the way, and it packs a bunch of new improvements that will no doubt please its fans. One of the new additions to Swype is the support for gestures. The updated Swype keyboard has seven built-in gestures for you to launch programs and to perform text-editing functions. For example users can swipe from the Swype key to “T” and then “W” to launch Twitter, or “F” to “B” to launch Facebook. Other gestures include launching Google Maps, selecting all text, cutting, copying and pasting text.

Another feature is the addition of a Swype-specific dictionary – you can easily add, edit and delete words from a personal dictionary that’s separate from the phone’s default dictionary. Perfect for folks who have a huge vocabulary of their own lingo and don’t want to mess around with the OS-level dictionary. The new Swype will also have better noun capitalization, a new “toast” tip-based system (which fortunately can be turned off), and a new design.

The new Swype will be available for Nexus S 4G users starting this morning – head over to the Swipe website to download it for free. As for the rest of us folks, the beta update will be released sometime soon, and for those using phones that come preloaded with Swype – you’ll just have to wait for the manufacturer to release the update for your phone.

George Wong
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Android, Apps, gestures, keyboard, Nexus 4, Samsung, Sprint, swype, Update