A few weeks ago SwiftKey’s “Layouts for Living” upgraded entered beta testing. The upgrade aims to make typing easier for users who have devices with varying screen sizes thus allowing them to type quickly and comfortably on any device and in any context. The new SwiftKey version brings three keyboard layouts, Compact, Full and Thumb. All of them can be undocked, resized and positioned on the screen, where the user wants to position them.
The Compact layout is meant for devices with larger screens, on which it is usually difficult to enter text and hold the device with just one hand. This layout will reduce the width of the keyboard and allow for easier typing with one hand, any hand, as it can be switched from the left or right side of the screen. Thumb layout will appeal to users who want effortless typing on tablets in landscape mode, or even on phablets. The layout splits keyboard in two areas, thus allowing the user to swiftly type using both thumbs. The Full layout is the traditional full-width keyboard that has left and right cursor keys and backspace above the enter key. Apart from the new layouts, SwiftKey 4.3 also comes with five different keyboard sizes, a new “Dark” theme and now it comes as a combined phone and tablet app, so there’s no need to pay separately for both. For existing users, SwiftKey 4.3 is a free upgrade from the Google Play Store or Amazon Appstore.