If you’re the sort that loves text predictions, then chances are you might have chosen keyboards like SwiftKey to be your keyboard of choice on your mobile device. If you thought that SwiftKey’s default method of predictions were good, you might be even more impressed as the company has recently announced the SwiftKey Neural Alpha keyboard.
What is this keyboard and what makes it so special? According to SwiftKey, the Neural Alpha is the world’s first neural network keyboard. What this means is that the technology underlying the keyboard is smart enough where it can operate like a human brain, thus taking its predictions to whole new levels.
According to SwiftKey’s description, “Through machine learning based on enormous amounts of language data, SwiftKey’s neural model is able to meaningfully capture the relationship between words. It understands word similarity, allowing it to compare words on the fly. Within the neural model, words can be visualized in ‘clusters’, located at varying degrees of proximity to one another.”
In other words, the keyboard’s predictions will be smarter as it will be able to take into account the context of the message itself. The company has also predicted that neural networks could eventually result in keyboards being able to craft out complete replies based on messages you have received.
It might seem a bit impersonal but if you’re after efficiency, this might be it. If you’d to take the SwiftKey Neural Alpha for a spin, the keyboard is available for download via the Google Play Store. It is currently only available for Android devices, but presumably it will make its way to iOS devices in the future.