Typewise Keyboard – High Speed, Precision Driven Typing Made Possible
Late last year, there was a wonderful case study about smartphone typing published by ETH Zurich, Aalto University of Helsinki and University of Cambridge. According to this study, smartphone users are able to type 70% faster than desktop using only 1 or 2 fingers. However, the maximum typing speed on a handheld device is only 36 WPM. It is notable that the younger generation between 13 to 18 type way faster than someone in their 50’s.
Over the last decade, the keyboard layout hasn’t updated much in comparison with the smartphone updates each year. All smartphone keyboards are still using the age old QWERTY keyboard. Interestingly, the QWERTY keyboard was never designed to be used with two fingers/thumbs. It was designed to be used by all 10 fingers on a typewriter.
In 2016, we did a write up about WRIO keyboard when they came up with an exciting new keyboard app for iOS and Android platforms to improve the typing speed by 20 to 70 percent when compared to your routine QWERTY keyboard layout. In the last quarter of 2019, WRIO has now been rightly renamed to Typewise, we know it is an apt name for the keyboard app. The team at Typewise advised that after the initial success of WRIO they started working full time on the app and have spent thousands of hours to build a dream keyboard for hand-held devices.
Features of Typewise Keyboard
Speed & Accuracy
Typewise benefits from years of experience of working on keyboard apps for hand-held devices. They believe that the normal QWERTY keyboard on a smartphone is not very user-friendly due to the small sized keys. It empowered them to come up with a large sized hexagonal keyboard which helps the precise movement of your fingers to reduce typos and increase speed and efficiency.
Gesture Equipped Typing
By performing simple gestures users can type a capital letter, delete or backspace text or restore a text deleted by mistake. This is possible through a left to write swipe or an up/down swipe. There is something great about this gesture based typing which increases the efficiency of the Typewise keyboard.
Advanced Auto-Correct
According to the study, auto correction helps to improve a user’s typing speed. However, there is no improvement in error rate. There could be two simple reasons: one, the autocorrect doesn’t recognize the correct word and second, it tries to correct an unknown word for example: a name. Typewise has solved this problem by enabling a language independent autocorrect feature. Moreover, it is also equipped to learn most repetitive words from another language and offer corrections accordingly.
Multi-language Support
One of the best features of Typewise is its multi-language support. Typewise allows you to choose from 30+ languages and you can use multiple languages simultaneously. It also has a custom dictionary which can learn input languages and provide predictive text accordingly. In addition to this, Typewise has added support for the Hinglish language specially for Indian users due to growing demands from the indian subcontinent.
Simplicity
When you think about all the possible tasks possible on Typewise, one would think of it to be a clunky app to use. However, the look and feel of the app is sophisticated and extremely simple. The layout is very easy to adopt with easy to learn gesture navigation.
Price and Availability
The Typewise app is free to use with basic functions. The price for Typewise premium has been reduced by 70% for all indian users and the new price is ₹249/year or ₹49/month. The app is completely ad free and protects privacy. If you would like to know more, you can download the android or iOS app.
Keval Padia is the founder & CEO of Nimblechapps, a fast-growing mobile app development company. The current innovation and updates of the field lures him to express his views and thoughts on certain topics.