It’s not every day that we have a high profile obituary but today is one of those days. Swype keyboard, the popular alternative to Swiftkey’s brilliant predictive keyboard by the same name 8 years ago, won’t be receiving any further support now or in the future from its developer, Nuance Communications Inc.
A diehard user of the app (must be a diehard because the app has been semi-dead for quite some time that it didn’t make the cut to our little list last year) got the following response when s/he reached out to the developer regarding a bug they were experiencing on their Google Pixel smartphone:
… we are sad to announce that Swype+Dragon for Android has faced end of development.
… 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.
So yeah, there you have it! It’s a wrap for the once popular keyboard app that was even incorporated in low-end Samsung devices like the Galaxy Young (remember it?) and the Galaxy mini (when it was updated to Android 2.3, Gingerbread).
Other than for nostalgia’s sake, not many of us will be missing Swype, to be honest. While I cannot speak for everyone, I had moved on long before its impending exit became imminent. 8 years is a long time and gesture-typing is no longer the hottest thing in the market right now and Gboard (long live Gboard) is just fantastic. It has always been a matter of when and not if, for a while now. Still, it’s sad to see one of the legends of the game go.
So long, Swype! Say hi to AppGratis, Link Bubble and the other fallen soldiers.
