As our keyboard doesn't require internet, the AI and the dictionaries are entirely within the app. So while it seems large it does pack quite a punch, so to say (write).
So, concerning privacy:
>How can you guarantee that you protect privacy?
For our offline version (Offline Privacy Keyboard), you can find in the Google Play Store that we do not require permissions to access the internet. (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.icoaching.w...). Our iOS version does not require "full access" for either version, online or offline. This way Apple makes sure no one (not even us) has access to what you type. Other keyboards (such as Google) require "Full access" or allow it be enabled at the explicit permission of the user (e.g. Swiftkey). Typewise does not even have this option. There is no other guarantee. Even a certification of a provider would not help, because they would have to check every update.
> Also, is the layout and key shape patented or is it an open standard?
Yes, the layout and key shape are patented internationally.
>>Also, is the layout and key shape patented or is it an open standard?
So if I spend time learning this, and then your company imposes unreasonable requirements to use the app, would I have no recourse/alternative, that doesn't involve the time going to learn the new layout going to waste?
Thanks for the feedback, Ben! We built the Typewise keyboard with two-thumb typing in mind, so while a full swipe functionality is not yet on the horizon, we are first building a one-hand mode.
Thanks Ben! Well, we are continuously expanding the langauges available, we started with languages using the latin alphabet, but we hope to add more soon. The AI in our keyboard already does recognize the language you are using and switches accordingly. You can also switch manually if you prefer.
Glad you included French. I speak French much better with my Android phone than with my conventional keyboard. (It can even make decent guesses about gender based on context.) I'll give yours a try and see how well it does.
Please let us know what you think of the french! We know there are some minor things that we are currently still working on fixing, e.g. improved accent recognition, but we'd love to hear your feedback to learn and adapt.
Hi guys! We’re David and Janis, co-founders of Typewise based in Switzerland. We’ve created a keyboard designed for smartphones. Conventional smartphone keyboards use the same layout as a typewriter, which was developed for 10-finger typing. How can a layout that was designed 200 years ago work well on a small smartphone screen?
That’s why we built a hexagonal keyboard that focuses on utilizing your two thumbs as the main tools of typing. Why hexagonal, you may ask? Well, conventional keyboards have the issue that their keys are small, resulting in a lot of typos. A recent study by Cambridge University and ETH Zurich found that 1 of 5 words written on smartphones contains typos (https://userinterfaces.aalto.fi/typing37k/). Hexagon shapes resemble our fingerprints, enabling a more comfortable typing experience that results in 4X fewer typos (using the above-mentioned typing test as comparison).
Another point about the keyboard is to protect user privacy. Most keyboard apps get access to all sorts of data, incl. GPS location or browser history, which can be very problematic. Many keyboards have been banned as a result of this overreach and abuse. Our entire keyboard, including the AI algorithms, are private-by-design, and no typing data ever leaves the device. To achieve same or even better text predictions than data-collecting alternatives such as Gboard, we’re working with top AI engineers from ETH Zurich as part of a Swiss government-funded research project. The first results will be available in early 2021 (they’ll be awesome, promised).
Which smartphone keyboard do you use? Is this something you see as an improvement? What features do you enjoy most in a smartphone keyboard? What other elements of our daily typing experience should be rethought for the digital age? What do you think of the privacy issues surrounding smartphone keyboards?
We hope you guys give it a spin. Let us know what you think, we are eager to hear your feedback
First of all, congrats for shipping! I am fully on board with the idea that mobile keyboards need some rethinking and hope to see more to happen in that space.
I don't use my phone's default keyboard, but have been locked into a different solution for a while, for better or worse. Allow me to jump straight to the questions.
> Which smartphone keyboard do you use?
I have been using Minuum since I found out there's a version for Android. I had stumbled across the Kickstarter campaign years prior but had forgotten about it until I got a Mini version of a popular smartphone at the time, and the default keyboard took up like half the screen. In a messenger I would see like two lines of the message I am responding to and in terms of user experience it was unacceptable.
After making the switch to reclaim some screen estate, and learning about some other neat features (switching between languages with a single swipe was a killer feature at the time, I think Gboard does that now?) it grew on me and I haven't looked back or wished for an alternative once in 7 years or so.
It has been unmaintained for years now but I'm still using it. For the peace of mind alone I would happily pay for a maintained version or an alternative, because not having a keyboard I enjoy devalues my phone to the point that I would actively avoid using it, and I am dreading the day I upgrade to a new phone and can't get the same experience anymore.
> Is this something you see as an improvement?
I might just not be the target audience, but I think the approach Minuum took is much more intuitive. It's the exact opposite, the keys are much smaller and put much closer together, but the words I type are almost always recognized, and deleting the word to retry if it's not is fast. The solution provided here is the opposite of what I want personally, provided there is a solution for me that gives me a great experience and free screen estate on top of it.
Also, the thought of using different layouts on mobile vs laptop/PC when my time is split proportionally between the two sounds alienating.
> What features do you enjoy most in a smartphone keyboard?
> What other elements of our daily typing experience should be rethought for the digital age?
Screen estate. It's the number one priority besides efficiency imo. The screen should be filled with the things I want to see, not the things I have to see, as much as possible.
Fast dictionary switching. All the communities I interact with are in English. My contacts mostly aren't. This context switch happens frequently, and should be free of needless friction.
Full word deletion to retry if things don't work out. I don't know if it's me or a symptom of the keyboard I use, but deleting words letter by letter is weirdly stressful, especially with auto correct trying to be smart between every keystroke. Being able to have the word gone with one swipe is much closer to the experience I have on the computer keyboard, and I find that to be very reassuring in a way.
> What do you think of the privacy issues surrounding smartphone keyboards?
This is huge. Really. My tolerance for the invasion of privacy keeps dwindling and uncomfortable compromises keep getting more frequent.
Your permission comparison is a big selling point and the main driver that would bring me back to this solution should my preferred option eventually disappear as I dread it will.
Again, thank you for investing time in this space. It's very much needed. Sorry I don't have more positive things to say, but I hope it can still be valuable feedback in some way.
Wow, thank you for the detailed feedback! Minuum indeed takes a different, nonetheless interesting approach. Our focus lies with the data privacy of users' typing data and the hexagonal layout. In terms of switching languages, our keyboard does recognize and switch accordingly to the language typed. How do you feel about a keyboard that woulld learn from your typing behaviour (Also adapting to your language preferences)? You raise a good point with screen estate however, we will consider it for future implementations. Thank you for sharing your input :)
> How do you feel about a keyboard that woulld learn from your typing behaviour (Also adapting to your language preferences)?
Minuum does that to make sense of what you type on the tiny board. It gets better over time and I've ported my data over from the last phone. But, given how much has happened in ML over the last few years, I have no doubt it could be done much better now. I enjoy it on a per-language level, but my experience with mixing dictionaries has always been awful and more of a hindrance than anything else. I eventually gave up and switched to just swiping through languages. That has been second nature since, with basically no mental overhead.
I personally wouldn't expect mixed-dictionary as a feature, and if it's there it would have to be pretty much flawless to convince me to give up that control. Then again, this might have been a problem that particularly affects Minuum, and with no overlap between the space that letters occupy, maybe it's much more manageable.
Either way, I'm excited for what you're doing and appreciate the opportunity to geek out about this topic. Thanks for reading!
That's certainly true. However, just because it's difficult doesn't mean we shouldn't try. Especially because current solutions have not solved the problem of tedious typing on phones, and many are violating user privacy (adding to the first problem). As written, we will make the user experience in a way that you can freely choose whether to stick to the traditional layout or advance to the hexagon one, so not forcing the user to re-learn if he doesn't want to.
Our AI learns on the device itself. We've designed the AI in a way that this is done efficiently without consuming much power. What we'd like to add in the future is a way that you can load your Whatsapp/etc. history into Typewise, to give it an onboarding boost. Obviously that again requires more permissions, but we should find a way where the user can activate/deactivate this.
It's not only about the actual words you're typing. This is one thing and you can opt to "trust" Google that they do what they say (which is not always the case, as previous scandals show). But it's also about other data the keyboard collects, such as contact details, memory data, usage statistics, etc. If you're comfortable with sharing everything with Google, well then that's that. I'd then still ask if Gboard is 100% comfortable to use, whether you never do a typo, whether you feel there's no improvement possible :-)
Haha, actually it's the single most praised feature from our users :-) It's that benefit you get instantly, as typically the user "gets" it within seconds and really speeds things up. As I wrote in my lengthy comment, which I understand you might not have read, we will implement a gradual progression starting at the current layout (incl. delete key) up to the "power user" hexagon layout. You decide how far you're willing to transform your typing behavior :)
Well, it could be the "single most praised feature" due to selection bias or survival bias: People who don't like the feature dislike it so much that they never become active users. :-O (Here's a good video about that kind of bias: https://youtu.be/P9WFpVsRtQg?t=88)
The "gradual progression" sounds very neat! I could imagine that will make adaption far easier and make the keyboard much more attractive for people who aren't "power users".
