Yesterday I installed Swype on my Nexus One and tweeted enthusiastically about it. The big downside at the moment, for some Android users, is that Swype (in beta) is only for Droid and Nexus One phones, due to screen size issues.

Today, my thanks go to @thheinen for letting me know of a similar app, SlideIT, which is available on the Android Market for any Android phone. This is similar to Swype but goes further in providing a Palm-like “graffiti” mode and, importantly for the European market, separately installable language packs for many languages.
I’ve now installed SlideIt on my dear old Hero (which had languished somewhat, of late, serving as an eReader by my bedside) and I’m impressed. Given the Hero’s slower processor, SlideIT’s word prediction and recognition is excellent. Swype wins on good looks and in some aspects of punctuation control. That said, I really need to use these two keyboard apps for a while before arriving at any firm conclusions.
Since my Nexus One is my main phone, I’m going to install SlideIT on the N1, alongside Swype, so I can try them both. It’ll be interesting.
Either way, these two apps make on-screen text entry a real pleasure. I reckon I can get words into the phone about three times quicker than using a tap-entry keyboard.
If you haven’t tried SlideIT, I recommend giving it a go. It’s FREE, by the way
(as are the language packs)
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