Swype

Swype was a virtual keyboard for touchscreen smartphones and tablets originally developed by Swype Inc., founded in 2002, where the user enters words by sliding a finger or stylus from the first letter of a word to its last letter, lifting only between words. It uses error-correction algorithms and a language model to predict the intended word. It also includes a predictive text system, handwriting and speech recognition support. Swype was first commercially available on the Samsung Omnia II running Windows Mobile, and was originally pre-loaded on specific devices. In October 2011, Swype Inc. was acquired by Nuance Communications where the company continued its development and implemented its speech recognition algorithm, Dragon Dictation. In February 2018, Nuance announced that it had stopped development on the app and that no further updates would be made to it. The Android app was pulled from the Play Store. The iOS app was also pulled from the App Store. The trial version of Swype is not visible anymore for users in the Play Store except for users who have installed the app by accessing it in the installed apps part of the Play Store. Cloud features of the paid version such as "Backup&Sync" no longer function, and Nuance Communications has refused to issue refunds to customers who have purchased the app and can no longer reinstall it.