[dschil138]

that's why it's so absolutely nuts that smartphone keyboards are just touchscreen versions of legacy keyboards.

If there is any place absolutely ripe for new innovation and optimizations, it's there. But there are hardly any significantly-different options! (at least on iphone, can't speak to Android)

Like, why can't I set my keyboard to delete the last word when I swipe left across the keyboard? There are a million low-hanging fruit things like that.

[HALtheWise]

At least on my Android Google keyboard, that exact feature exists (swiping left from the backspace key deletes words in a natural way). Similarly, swiping on the spacebar moves the cursor. More generally, swipe typing, aggressive autocorrect, and voice input are pretty novel and core to any modern phone keyboard. If you want to see really wild stuff, look at some of the Japanese phone keyboards, they're mostly based on slide gestures that can translate to a physical keyboard.

[xigoi]

Try out MessagEase. It's available for both Android and iOS. (Unfortunately it's proprietary, but at least completely free-as-in-beer.)

[Sakos]

Tried this briefly and it seems interesting. Any idea why it's free? That's a bit sketchy imo when it's not open source and there's no obvious way it's being monetized. I've seen that they sell Windows, Pocket PC and Palm versions, but that can't possibly sell enough copies to make it worth it?

My first guess is they're using the free model to promote their technology and be able to license it to companies. Which would be fine, just wish it would be spelled out.