This is a thread for people testing TouchPal's beta. This is not an "applying for beta" thread, if you don't have it installed, you're in the wrong place.
From my PM, I got the following:
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** Feedback **
The main goal of having beta testing is to collect valuable feedback. Your feedback is important to us! To submit your feedback, please email to (removing address to prevent spamming).
Besides TouchPal Keyboard, TouchPal Dialer is another app that helps you find contacts quicky in T9 keypad, display caller location, and much more. Search "TouchPal Dialer" in Andorid market and it is free!
Again, sincere thanks from TouchPal team!
Best regards,
Jessica Wu
TouchPal
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Personally, I'm having some luck emailing Jessica (and got a reply), but also having a lot of bounces. I'll try to get a note through to CooTek that I started this thread.
I'll post my email & reply in a moment.
oops - double posted. sorry.
What I sent earlier today:
Only been playing around 30 minutes, so will try to send a longer one after using a few days, but some quick thoughts:
- I kept typing "This is a test" to see if the keyboard would learn. I know on Swiftkey (which I own) that the first time I type it, it's the default next time (ie, when I type "This" then "is" "a" "test" will all be top suggestions in that order.
On TouchPal, the word "Test" didn't show the first couple times, then it did show on the right, and slowly moved to the left of suggestions - so I think it's learning. I don't know how the settings are, but might need some tweaking.
- With tracing turned on, you obviously can't slide down on letters to get alternate symbols But holding down works just fine. Likewise, with tracing on, you don't get to see the predicted next word until you hit a space.
The problem with that - with tracing keyboards I usually do trace-trace-trace, never hitting the space bar. Spaces are auto-entered. To get the next-word predition, I have to do trace-space (see if the word I want is on the list & if not go back to tracing). I'll have to try this for a few days, but right now it's faster to just trace the next word I want then hit the space & see if the word I want is up there.
On, with tracing on, no idea how to change keyboard layouts.
- Toolbar area, please change the buttons. Make the language one be settings with one click & language with 2 clicks. I don't need another settings button where words will be. Likewise, I don't need a tutorial button there. I do like the middle buttons for cut/copy/arrows. Maybe a button to turn tracing on/off or change layouts?
- Percise mode. One of the BIGGEST things I use in SlideIT is the ABC/Sliding button so I can turn off tracing and go to exact input. Very useful for web page addresses, user name, password, names - anything where you temp. need your exact clicks. Maybe make your TouchPal symbol a toggle to turn this mode on & off.
- Is it me, or is the bottom left A/Book button the same as the Shift button?
===========================
The reply:
Thanks for the feedback! Here're some quick response:
On TouchPal, the word "Test" didn't show the first couple times, then it did show on the right, and slowly moved to the left of suggestions - so I think it's learning. I don't know how the settings are, but might need some tweaking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please note that in the example, "a" is followed by "test". There are many possible words after "a", so inputting "a test" for once doesn't necessarily mean you will have "a test" in the next time. If "test" is promoted too fast, this would be a disturbing option. If you try some other combination, such as "This is a quick test", I believe "test" will be immediately promoted after you input "quick".
The problem with that - with tracing keyboards I usually do trace-trace-trace, never hitting the space bar. Spaces are auto-entered. To get the next-word predition, I have to do trace-space (see if the word I want is on the list & if not go back to tracing). I'll have to try this for a few days, but right now it's faster to just trace the next word I want then hit the space & see if the word I want is up there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's true. Because we need to give you an option to change the traced word first.
On, with tracing on, no idea how to change keyboard layouts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Slide from the toolbar button, such as shift key.
- Percise mode. One of the BIGGEST things I use in SlideIT is the ABC/Sliding button so I can turn off tracing and go to exact input. Very useful for web page addresses, user name, password, names - anything where you temp. need your exact clicks. Maybe make your TouchPal symbol a toggle to turn this mode on & off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You do have such a toggle button on the left-bottom-corner with A and a book (indicating dictionary). Is it not obvious enough? Do you have a better suggestion?
My verdict.
I like it but currently swype is better.
Improvements
* the ability to add words to dictionary by manually typing it.
* Auto correct is to sensitive. A slight delay when typing gives you an extra letter. swype is smoother.
* auto capitalisation after fullstop
* symbols done the usual way, its a nice idea but annoying when having to scroll through pages, try to add more on each page.
to be honest i thought i would type this with TouchPal so i could see bugs whilst typing, and I'm starting to like it. autocorrect the only annoyance
Swyped from my MIUI Galaxy S II
dh2311 said:
* the ability to add words to dictionary by manually typing it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I can tell, it already does that. Type a word (no matter whether you are in dictionary mode or not), and next type you are typing it it will suggest the word. Or when swiping it next time, it will also come up.
My comments:
I agree with most of the things that are posted here. I had one crash of touchpal today, it occured while i tapped and hold the backspace key to get rid of a few lines of text. Touchpal closed and didn't give me an option to send a crash log, unfortunately. Tried it a few times more, and sometimes when "backspacing" a lot of text, it will crash. Pretty reproducible.
I just don't completely understand the dictionary button, I don't find a difference in behavior whether it's turned on or off?
And when clicking a word (that was a mistake), it would be neat if other suggestions would come up so you can easily correct it, like swype does.
Thusfar, I think SlideIT (my normal keyboard) is better. My big thing is wanting the next word suggestion but I can't see an easy way of doing it and suggesting fixes for the Slide.
My only thought so far would be to split the suggestion line and make the first 2-3 suggestions fixes for the current word and then the next 2-3 words suggestions for the next word. Color code them so you know which are which.
I suppose you could also do two lines and let the user decide which one or both they want to see.
I will keep this one as my default for at least a week to see how it goes. I've found some other differences that would require adjustment. Spacing particularly going from single taps to tracing and back seems to be a bit inconsistent.
For a beta version, it's running pretty smooth. Suggestions and improvements can always be added
I was trying to type 'sim' today and it absolutely would not let me. When I hit the s key, it typed an a. No amount of tweaking would work. If I managed to get the s to work, I'd type an i and then tried to type the m, but it automatically inserted 'sin', and would not let me type 'sim'. Very frustrating.
Plus, there is a typo - I can't find it now, but somewhere the word 'editing' is misspelled 'editting' (two t's).
That reminds me - any way to remove a word entered by accident?
This app makes me miss Ultra Keyboard, wonder how he's doing. That was the one that tried to cram in every dang option from every keyboard out there. I seem to remember that the tracing was pretty bad at getting the correct word, but sure had a lot of options. Don't think it had next word prediction though.
This is my review I posted on reddit
Here is my review after ~1 hour of playing with it
I know I can come off as bashing this, but I'm not. I'm just giving my honest, personnal impression of this beta. I'll also be comparing it to swype only since it's its main competitor
PROS
- The install was flawless (no registration or anything for now). Swype is annoying for this, particularly when it fails to generate license or w/e. Flashing new roms regularly on my phone, I've had a good share of failed installs of swype. Pain in the ass to remove as it's usually a system app (not uninstallable without Root explorer/Titanium Backup/etc.)
- I haven't seen crashes/bugs
- It has been fully responsive without a hint of slowdown unlike swype (sometimes I get a slight lag on swype)
CONS
- I couldn't find the "blank keyboard" shown in the video. I'm thinking it was just a way for them to show you can type blind with the keyboard
- The predictions are pretty bad for short words (2-4 letters). Swype is also not so great at this, but usually better
- The default dictionary seems like it needs much more training than swype. I frequently flash new roms on my phone and usually I barely have to train swype to get to a satisfactory level when typing. This wasn't the case. I'd say swype predicts correctly about 70-80% of my words out of the box while Touchpal is probably around 50-70%.
SWYPE VS TOUCHPAL
Here is some unscientific tests I did with a few sentences with both keyboards out of the box. Using "swype" method and not tapping amongst the suggestions (letting the keyboard pick its best guess)
"Why are you so mad?"
* TOUCHPAL: Whiff ate youtube sop mad?
* SWYPE: Why are you so mad?
"Reddit is the place to be"
* TOUCHPAL: Reaffirm its the place to be
* SWYPE: Freddie is the place to be
"This is a test of an android keyboard"
* TOUCHPAL: This its the testy of android keyboard
* SWYPE: This is a test of an android keyboard
"Let's do one more test for Reddit"
* TOUCHPAL: Lewis dull one mower test for restitution
* SWYPE: Let's do over more test for refit
TL;DR
Promising but swype still far "better". I'm hoping for improvement as I hate Swype installation.
i agree with what you say, TouchPals correction is poor, tries too hard to find what you're trying to say, shouldn't try to lengthen words, just ends up guessing words that begin around where you started. its a good idea but flawed by its predictions. shouldn't go longer than amount of letters you stopped on
Swyped from my MIUI Galaxy S II
Quick questions:
Is it me or with tracing on, is there a way to quickly change keyboard layouts (from full keys to TouchPal+ to T9)?
Is there a way to do tracing while in TouchPal+ mode (2 letters per key)?
After using this for a while, I agree with a lot of the comments here.
1. The auto-correction is too sensitive. Always giving me words that I am NOT often using even as I swype over and over again.
2. I cannot seem to swype words like "Haha" "Hehe" "Lol". Can't even seem to add them to dictionary. It never seems to learn that I like to use those words often.
3. I set my Keyboard Layout in Portrait to FULL QWERTY. When I am on an active telephone call and I want to use the keyboard, it will auto switch to 12-Key PhonePad for me.
So for now, I am still sticking to Swype app. =) Oh I hope there's a quick way to tap the to have a smiley inserted immediately rather than tapping that Smiley > Going into a Smiley Menu > Tap a Smiley. Swype can do it it in one tap of a button.
Currently reinstalling after a reflash earlier but i've got to say what stood out the most (negative) was the desire to lengthen words. I understand that its a great feature to type "ackn" and get "acknowledge" but so many times i'm trying to write something simple and the first suggestion will always be much longer and obscure (can't remember the one earlier for "hey").
Maybe some sort of gesture to let the keyboard know you're trying to write a longer word using less keystrokes? I don't know how many words start with double letters, maybe a quick double tap on the first letter before sliding? Trying to think of situations where that would be worse than what we're experiencing.
Given that this is a phone/tablet keyboard and most users right now are on phones using this for texting and/or quicker e-mails, I think you are more likely to see people simplifying their speech automatically rather than trying to swype a really long word like "got it" instead of "acknowledge"
Will post more meaningful thoughts when I get a chacne to play with it some more
2 things that really bug me:
- not able to correct a word when i tap on it. have to delete the whole word and re-swipe it.
- not able to input custom words.
yeah.. tried to send feedback via the email they gave and it bounced back twice. :l
TouchPal, it was doing great until it comes to learning new words. The promotion system sucks as the word I really use often move very slowly to the blue recommendation box. For those who are fast typist, use super simplified words, this app is not meant for you. Its a damn slow learner. But can be fixed if they implement SMS learning in it. Plus, if I edit some existing word, it will just create another new word, without taking the existed word into account. Even if I just want to add an -es into it.
Sent from my HTC Desire HD using XDA App
Really annoying to hit space after every word. Especially with a small space bar. Need continuous swyping!
Samsung Captivate using XDA App
No french dictionnary
thanks for adding me to the beta team.
i could use it for daily use if the german dict would also be released. so i only can test a few sentence because i only use english 5% of my typings.
a must have for me also is a configurable smiley button. want to change some smilies.
the thing i also miss is: when typing some words, and you want to correct a word typed 3 words before, that you put the cursor somewhere into the word and get the correction list as in smartkeyboard pro.
i would also like to see the cursor arrows all the time like in smartkeyboard pro. optionally.
sent from my SGSII via T*patalk
I'd like to add this in case any Epic 4G users happen to read. I found that TouchPal affected my hardware keyboard by making the 'fn' and 'shift' keys lose their functionality. I was unable to capitalize letters and make symbols with it. Was fine before I installed TouchPal, and it was fixed after I uninstalled TouchPal. Tried re-installing it several times to see if it was just a mishap, but after 6 times the problem was always there.
Current build is Froyo 2.2.1, [EC05]SyndicateROM Frozen 1.2, Twilight 1.1.1 Kernel.
Other than that, some very nice features. Love the up/down slide on keys for capital letter/number/symbol shortcut. Would love if a future version had full text shortcuts when pressing they key and scrolling up, down, left or right. For now though, no go. I need my slide-down keyboard :3
Dear All,
While texting..
Long pressing the keys of the virtual keyboard
and sliding them to choose a letter
while looking at the huge letter pop-up
that displays the currently touched letter above a user's finger
has proven the easiest way for me to type text messages.
(a user's finger always hides the letter that is touched)
I'm looking for a keyboard app
that has the option to disable alternative characters
when long pressing a virtual keyboard's key
so that long pressing a key like "a"
will not pop up a bar of "a"s
with weird accents on top:
"à á â ã ä å æ"
(Android 2.2 default virtual keyboard)
That will make typing with the virtual keyboard so much easier
without worrying that touching a virtual key too long
will pop up the bar with the weird: "à á â ã ä å æ"
And besides, who is using those characters in English anyway?
That bar is just plain useless for English.
So.. anyone knows any keyboard app
that has the option to disable
the alternative characters bar?
Thanks in advance for any info,
ff
You could try Go Keyboard.
You can't disable it completly, but it is possible to alter the delay of the long press (max. 1 sec).
It's very customizable, and got loads of themes. You should try it.
Go Keyboard is amazing!
Thanks!
The delay does the job nicely!
(If only they could make the delay up to 2 seconds
that would be even more amazing :^) but that's OK.. )
Kontsnor said:
You could try Go Keyboard.
You can't disable it completly, but it is possible to alter the delay of the long press (max. 1 sec).
It's very customizable, and got loads of themes. You should try it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried Dextr for an easy, fast and cool app for a keyboard on smartphone? I love to recommend it to you and try it as well.
Feedback would be well appreciated when try the app:
play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gkxim.android.dexter&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5na3hpbS5hbmRyb2lkLmRleHRlciJd :good:
Installed now,
Will let you know after evaluation..
Thanks!
creativemind101 said:
Have you tried Dextr for an easy, fast and cool app for a keyboard on smartphone? I love to recommend it to you and try it as well.
Feedback would be well appreciated when try the app:
play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gkxim.android.dexter&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5na3hpbS5hbmRyb2lkLmRleHRlciJd :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Review of Dextr
Review of Dextr
Dextr is indeed very easy.
The fact that the layout is in alphabetical order
helps you in typing really really fast.
The circular keys make it very natural to tap them
so that's another clever feature of Dextr
although i would prefer to have the option of making them bigger.
As i prefer writing messages in all capital letters
because it's easier for me to write them
and for people to read them..
finding how to [Cap Lock] the keys was
a matter of luck for me as i've found it accidentally.
You have to double tap fast, the key with the big capital [A].
That being said i will have to go back in using [Go Keyboard]
as Dextr has a few shortcomings that make it difficult for me
to write messages. But i'll have to stress that it's a matter
of personal taste.. Other Android users will not care and
make Dextr their default keyboard.
1-PopUp Letter height
When taping a key, a big Letter Pops Up showing what you are taping.
Because the PopUp is too close to your thumb
you thumb hides the PopUp letter rendering it useless.
In [Go Keyboard] you can adjust the PopUp height of a key to higher
so you can easily view the PopUp without it being hidden by your thumb.
In Dextr you cannot do that afaik.
2-The [Enter] key does not function.
Probably because Dextr is still in Beta.
Dextr has a column of orange keys that when long pressed
special characters popup.
I wish that Dextr will offer the option to disable
those special characters some day
as i find them completely useless and frustrating in that
when you long press the orange keys and the useless
special characters popup, you have to hit the back button
and tap the same letter again.
Dextr has the option to delay the popup of special characters
but the delay is too short. The same with [Go Keyboard] btw.
At the support of Dextr:
http://textwithdextr.com/index.php/en/forum/index
Attempting to create an account fails..
http://textwithdextr.com/index.php/en/component/user/register
Regards,
ff
creativemind101 said:
Have you tried Dextr for an easy, fast and cool app for a keyboard on smartphone? I love to recommend it to you and try it as well.
Feedback would be well appreciated when try the app:
play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gkxim.android.dexter&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5na3hpbS5hbmRyb2lkLmRleHRlciJd :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flit Keyboard ! !
Cell phones because of their small size they have 2 grand limitations
when it comes to entering text with their virtual on screen keyboards:
1-qwerty characters on virtual buttons are way too small to view easily
so most likely in most cases you are wasting your time and your patience
looking around to find what you want to tap.
2-qwerty character virtual buttons are way too small to tap
so most likely in most cases you tap the wrong buttons.
But my quest for the
easiest Android keyboard app for text messaging..
(specially if your phone's screen is small)
..is finally over ! !
Flit Keyboard makes entering text so much easier ! !
Search for: [Flit Keyboard] in Google Play.
Just Eight ( 8 ) >> HUGE << Buttons Keyboard.
A gift from God for guys with BIG fingers!!
So easy to enter text with just 1 thumb.
Also, by easily sliding you can type:
>> All << Alphabet characters, numbers and symbols,
(though some symbols still need shift)
all in the same screen!
All you have to do is:
Tap one of the 8 buttons and slide to specific character.
When you release the button that specific character is typed.
Just tap slide and release! That's all there is to it.. so easy!
It's so easy that in fact with a little bit of practice you may enter text
without looking at your cell phone!
While you are pressing a button a BIG pop up opens up
with 9 characters to slide to, making it easier to see
more characters than an Android qwerty keyboard can display.
Important: No more unwanted weird characters typed
if you long-press a button too much..
No more accidentally typing the wrong character!
You can see the character you want to type
by long-pressing as much as you like
to make sure it's the correct character you want to type
before releasing the button and the character is typed.
Cursor controls!
By sliding the space bar (left, up, right) and one of the buttons (down)
you can easily move the cursor any where you want in a body text!
All other keyboard apps that have cursor controls they take
a chunk of the screen making you wanting to disable their cursor functionality
to save screen space.
I firmly believe that Flit Keyboard must become
THE Number One Android Keyboard
out of any other qwerty Android keyboards out there.
video review:
Search youtube for:
[Flit Keyboard]
P.S.
To make characters bigger than the default Flit Keyboard
go to Flit settings and disable: [Show hint line]
ff
Try Swiftkey 3. I been using it for over a year now.
Its clean, easy and efficient.
- Option to activate/ deactivate foreign characters.
- Option to change Long press time from 100-1600ms
- Option to increase or decrease key height. Love this option. I have fat thumbs.
I have the paid version but you can try the free one and see how it works for you.
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- MyTouch 4G using PARANOIDANDROID jellybean