One of the hurdles people often face when starting to use an iPhone or other touch-screen device is dealing with a slower typing speed. Instead of knowing where each individual key is on the keyboard by touch, you need to do a little more guess work with the iPhone. As someone who tends to write lengthy text messages and comes up with ideas while out and about, this was one of my concerns when using a touch-screen phone.
A bluetooth keyboard can certainly help, but there are times when it’s easier not to carry a separate device or you’ve just forgotten it. Cases with bluetooth keyboards built-in are understandably a bit more bulky than the iPhone on its own. Enter Fleksy, a new app aimed to help you type faster. Instead of having to find each key then either lift your finger or split tap as is done with VoiceOver, with Fleksy, just aim a finger at where you think a key might be. The system will do its best to figure out what you were typing. More often then not, it will be correct. If it isn’t right, simply swipe down to hear a list of suggestions. The team has even improved the entering of punctuation; you don’t have to switch to a new keyboard just to enter a comma.
The only drawback to this innovative app is that you need to copy the text you’ve written into other apps, as iOS doesn’t allow the keyboard to be used system-wide. In other words, your keyboard is a separate app, and you need to paste the text you’ve written into apps like Safari or Notes. However, Fleksy makes it easy to copy text, and you can set up favorite email addresses and numbers you frequently text right within the app.
The majority of this post was written using Fleksy, and while I had to correct the system’s guesses approximately 15 times, the word I was looking for was usually the first or second suggestion. I find the words that are most difficult to type are short words whose letters are close together on the keyboard. For example: it, is, if.
Next time you have an idea for a paper, or need to write a quick note about a class, Fleksy might just be able to help you get it done a bit more speedily.
Fleksy costs 14.99 in the App store.