Like a lot of my fellow Android users, I often used to jump back and forth between keyboard apps on my phone. I've dabbled with just about every popular option out there, but today the Play Store is losing one of its long-standing champs as development for Swype Keyboard has officially ended.
According to one Redditor that contacted customer support at Nuance (the company behind Swype), they were told that "Swype+Dragon for Android has faced end of development." This was then followed up by a message from Swype's Product Team that reads:
Nuance will no longer be updating the Swype+Dragon keyboard for Android. We're sorry to leave the direct-to-consumer keyboard business, but this change is necessary to allow us to concentrate on developing our AI solutions for sale directly to businesses.
Shortly after this, XDA Developers received a statement from Swype's PR department confirming what the Reddit user was told.
Swype has been on the Android Market/Google Play Store since as far back as 2013, and at the time of publishing this article, the Play Store indicates it has between 1,000,000 and 5,000,000 installs. In addition to being around on the Play Store for so long, many Huawei devices still ship with Swype preinstalled out of the box.
The Swype Keyboard app is still on the Play Store, but it won't receive any future updates from here on out. I've personally been using Gboard for well over a year as my keyboard of choice, and while it can take some time to understand all of its different features, it really does offer one of the best typing experiences on Android.
If you're currently a Swype user, what keyboard app will you be moving to?
