When we first saw this email hit our inbox we thought “just another press release”. However, with a bit of time to play, and having tested the app out, I thought this was good enough for a quick post!
Nuance Communications, Inc. today announced that the single language version of its FlexT9 app for Android smartphones and tablets is now available in the Australian Android Market for free for a limited time, supporting Australian English. FlexT9 transforms the traditional Android keypad on smartphones and tablets into a unique four-in-one keyboard that gives people more choice in how they communicate, whether they speak, trace, write or tap.
FlexT9 combines Nuance’s renowned Dragon Dictation, T9 Trace continuous touch, T9 Write handwriting and XT9 predictive input to deliver the industry’s first truly multimodal input experience. The result is a faster, more natural experience on the virtual keypad in the ways that work best for the consumer – speaking, tracing, writing or tapping. And because it’s optimised for the hottest Android smartphones and tablets, consumers can be more connected and more productive anytime, anywhere.
I’ve been playing with this keyboard this morning in Ausdroid’s Sydney offices, because it’s too wet outside to do much else, and the keyboard is fast, fluid, quick and doesn’t get in the way, and it’s error correction rate is spot on. Even the voice dictation feature is fast and surprisingly accurate – giving even Google’s voice recognition a run for its money.
FlexT9 supporting the Australian English language is available for download for free today through September 14, 2011, supports Android OS v2.1 and higher, including select Honeycomb devices.
No longer available on Australian devices?
Thanks for the tip. I’m trying this out on my SGS II right now and it’s working pretty well. I’ll stick with it for a few days to see how it goes with time, but nice effort and great for something free.
While it’s not perfect, it still does a pretty good job with it’s features. Definitely better than the stock kbd on my Desire HD (Gingerbread). I’ll be keeping this one.
Works on Galaxy S 2, but as has been mentioned the space bar is small, speach does not work as well…the good thing is swipe is quick and the added suggestion bar is a great and easy to use idea.
As for it being for ‘limited users’ this should never make a difference when posting on Ausdroid. This is how you get interest to the little things so they can improve and make it for everyone..Great post.
This keyboard has a nice feel but I agree it lacks some of the polish features that other keyboards like Swype or Smart Keyboard Pro have. It’s not bad.
And yea, regardless of whether an app caters to everyone or just a few people, we’ll post if we think we have something good to share.
“[…] and it’s error correction rate is spot on.”
Well you obviously didn’t write this sentence with the keyboard then. Ah, I feel like such a troll.
Does this work well/at all on the Samsung Galaxy S II? I’m not actually in need of a new keyboard right now but the list of supported handsets is quite specific (I find it strange that the HTC Magic is there, for example).
Im a bit cautious when it says ‘this input method may be able to collect all the data you type…passwords…’ Etc etc when u go to enable. No thanks.
it does that with every custom keyboard you install. Swype does it too. It just means that the app COULD be programmed to act as a keylogger and send your data back over the internet, but so far android has been pretty quick to remove bad apps and keyboards aren’t an exception.
But why does the keyboard need network communication privileges? That seems a bit concerning to me.
I suppose they could say for input suggestion on web browsing but thats the browser/application…and theres no ads… Feedback doesnt require this enabled…unless…well you know…
I’ve been using the backported Gingerbread keyboard for a while now, but this looks pretty decent. The draw mode is neat, reminds me of using a Palm Pilot back in the day…
(I see that OpenID login seems to have gone AWOL.)
set VOICE(sarcastic) to 100
Nice of them to not support LG gear…Real nice…
NOT!
set VOICE(sarcastic) to 0
The severely limited number of supported devices makes this app useless for the vast majority of Android users.
Chris, next time you go and recommend an app, please make sure its one that the majority of Android users can run, before posting it on Ausdroid.
Hi JeniSkunk, while this app might not support every Android device out there, it does support a lot of popular ones.. and besides, not everything we post will be used for everyone. That’s just the nature of news and blogging. We do our best and I’m sorry this post didn’t offer you anything.
Hi JeniSkunk, while this app might not support every Android device out there, it does support a lot of popular ones.. and besides, not everything we post will be used for everyone. That’s just the nature of news and blogging. We do our best and I’m sorry this post didn’t offer you anything.
The on-screen keyboard seems really good.
The delay for typing numbers is a bit long. If they reduced that, I think it would be the best keyboard out there.
Also, Swype-like capital letters would be nice.
Hmm, just downloaded 8pen, its a bit different, but damn its cool, plus its funny giving someone the phone and watching them try to type something 🙂
Fast too once you get the hang of it.
Anyway, might give flex a go later, but MrSimtangs review doesn’t fill me with hope (small space bars make large fingers unhappy).
i downloaded 8pen after reading your comment and looking at a demonstration on their website. i have to agree, it’s pretty cool! hopefully i can get the hang of it pretty quickly so i don’t get too discouraged, it’s very frustrating at first
It’s pretty good. I find it much more accurate (and MUCH cleaner) than Swype. Voice detection is pretty good, but not superb (still haven’t found something that is though).
I don’t know, I just hate how the space bar is so small. I accidentally keep hitting the full stop button when I want to hit space, and you can’t remove the draw or voice command icons to increase the space bar size or anything.
Dunno. I’ll keep trying to use it, but I think I might be too used to the gingerbread keyboard.
Agreed, definitely much cleaner than Swype on my Galaxy S. Not really a fan of it’s predictions though (but I am a horrible typer so it’s probably me). Don’t see how the “draw” feature would be too useful for me personally.
I’ll give it a go but I might revert back to Swype because I’m so used to it and it’s faster.
“Drawing” characters on a touch screen goes right back to the early PDAs.
Trying to “draw” the characters without using a precise, pointed, stylus on a resistive screen, though… I can’t see how that would be able to be any good.
Dictation/voice recognition didn’t work for me. Thankfully the on-screen keyboard is pretty good.