Waw, that’s actually quite an improvement.

A sensible fix is now being able to use flow and prediction in all browser fields! Before it was absent from most of them (Google search, forums, …). So they’re (finally) listening to all their users.

Another one is being able to switch from one language to the next by swiping the spacebar, an elegant solution that avoids going back to the settings. Unfortunately though, it only switches the keyboard layout and not really the language, SwiftKey will still suggest foreign words in the middle of a sentence (which is very rarely used in practice, so it must be a bug).

A remaining annoyance is the keyboard size on the tablet version, it’s not possible to get a smaller keyboard like Swype’s, and it does feel ridiculous to have to swipe all the way on a big 10.1″ tablet keyboard! Hopefully they’ll realize their mistake here and offer a small-sized keyboard in the near future.

Not bad at all, with a prediction that feels better than Swype, they might become a good alternative once those remaining little hiccups are solved. Since on their side, Swype have improved the installation obscure process a little bit (it’s still a bit awkward, for example being forced to download the installer on the device itself and not on a comfortable PC browser… and no Google Play entry), this is an interesting fight.