Well known third-party keyboard, Swype, has bid a fond farewell this week with the app set to no longer receive updates.
The owner of the app, Nuance Communications, who purchased the app for $100 million back in 2011 and also develops the well known dictation software Dragon Naturally Speaking, has advised a reddit user in an email that the app is no longer being updated. The email said
We hope you enjoyed using Swype, we sure enjoyed working with the Swype community.
Swype was one of the originators of the swiping style of typing which has since been emulated on almost every other third-party keyboard from Google’s GBoard to Swiftkey.
A search for Swype in Google Play shows that the app is no longer available for new users, with the only two apps from Nuance Communications now Power Mic Mobile and Dragon Medical Mobile recorder.
In a statement to XDA-Developers, Nuance further clarified stating that the app will remain available for current Swype users.
After years of leadership in the third-party keyboard and alternative text input space, Nuance made the difficult decision to discontinue our support of the Swype keyboard application as we continue to focus our efforts on AI-powered solutions for our core vertical markets. This means that the app is no longer available for new downloads from the iPhone or Android App Stores and that we are no longer maintaining or making updates to the app. However, current users still have the ability to access and use the app as normal and will be able to contact Nuance for tech support as needed for the next several months.
The core technology behind Swype will continue to be utilized and improved upon across other Nuance offerings – and integrated into our broader AI-powered solutions – most notably in Android-based keyboard solutions for our automotive customers.
We thank Swype’s loyal user base for its support.
If you were a user of Swype it’s unfortunately time to move on.
Well, a quick check of Google Play shows that Swype may be missing from “Apps”, but is still available under “My apps”, so I *should* still be able to install it on my next device. And if all else fails, I guess I can side-load the APK – wow, haven’t done that since the beta! Very sad to see development stop, I still think it’s the best keyboard available. Pity they haven’t spun the keyboard out and sold it, but I guess there’s too much Dragon IP embedded in it…
Yep. That’s what the amended statement says, it will remain available for current users. I haven’t used Swype in some time so it’s been removed from my list.
R.I.P SWYPE.
What so now I have to type again like a caveman!!
A lot of other 3rd party keyboards (and the Google default?) have the swype functionality built in, so you should be able to find alternative and type faster than a caveman.
The thing I think I’ll miss most is being able to Swype in password fields