SwiftKey gets faster and leaner with latest update

If SwiftKey is your keyboard of choice, you may notice the app is a little faster after its latest update. The Microsoft-owned keyboard has received a substantial speed boost, making it "on average 20 percent faster loading" than its closest competitor, the SwiftKey team claims. Further, SwiftKey says it has reduced lag by more than 50 percent in its internal testing.

Here's a full rundown of the improvements SwiftKey has made in its latest update:

• SwiftKey is on average 20% faster loading than our closest competitor across a range of devices, and as much as twice as fast on first load after a phone restart
• SwiftKey has the smallest app install size on fresh install – without sacrificing features or functionality – on some devices this is as much as half the size
• Internal testing shows improved frame rendering, reducing lag by over 50%, even on older phones

SwiftKey says that it arrived at its speed claims after testing its keyboard versus GBoard 7.6.13, Baidu 8.2.1, and TouchPal 6.9.1 on a variety of Android devices. All keyboards were set to English US for the language, but the team claims it has seen similar performance improvements with other languages.

Your mileage may vary in terms of pure speed, but the main takeaway is that SwiftKey should generally be faster and smaller, particularly with fresh installs. If you want to give it a shot for yourself, you can grab SwiftKey from Google Play now.

See at Google Play