Announcing FlickType Keyboard & looking for beta testers

Hi All. Just a note to let you know that our interview with Kosta from FlickType is now available. Kosta joined myself and Thomas to discuss the history of Fleksy, what happened with that app, and the future hopes for FlickType. Thanks Kosta.
Link to the podcast:
https://www.applevis.com/podcast/episodes/applevis-extra-55-fleksy-flicktype

Hi Everyone,

With permission from the FlickType developers, I have created an FB group for any FlickType users to join. The link is below:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1652233924872507/

I thought I was content with Braille Screen Input. But after reading all the comments here, I've got to get in on this. Just sent an email.

Hi Kosta, thank you for such an interesting and iilluminating interview, your honesty, dedication and sincerity certainly shine through.

I am having fun testing flicktype, though I must be honest I rarely get words I want first time which is very strange given that with fleksy on a smaller screen I normally got words I wanted first time, I don't know if maybe its the screen size or the way I hold the phone that now affects accuracy, also I am sure its just me but I feel I am slower at typing with flicktype than the braille screen input, I mean my fingers actually moving not responsiveness of the app, I guess I feel sort of clumsy. This isn't criticizing flicktype at all, I am sure its down to me being spoiled by braille screen input, I am looking forward to when flicktype can learn from how we type.
Also, another thought maybe flicktype could accept braille as an input method, as yes braille screen input works, but it has bugs which apple are unable to reproduce, and mbraille is slower for me and less accurate in terms of when I am trying to hit certain dots.

I don't know if it helps, but when I am typing with flicktype I am gripping my iPhone x with more of my hand which could limit finger movement, also it feels more secure holding the phone with the screen facing vertically or maybe sloping away from me which I am sure affects my dexterity. the problem is its hard to get a balance between feeling you have the phone securely and being able to type due to the larger screen, the smaller screen was ideal for fleksy but now its a real balancing act trying to type and make sure the phone is gripped firmly.
when I type with braille screen input I keep the phone in landscape mode phone gripped between the palms of my hands screen facing away from me in landscape screen away mode.

I do have a bug to report with flicktype and landscape mode but I am uncertain if its ios or flicktype that has the bug, but I will send feedback through testflight and explain the issue.

One final thought I have its not a biggy but just a suggestion regarding the name, you call the app flicktype, why is this given that we tap to type, I guess we do flick for some of the gestures but most of the time we are tapping, perhaps the app should be called tap type? I don't mind at all if you don't like the idea just thought I would throw it out there for people's thoughts.

One thing that third party keyboards and even braille screen input haven't done well at is quickly changing keyboards to say go to the emoji keyboard, I mean for example if I am using mbraille its 3 separate taps and some flicks to quickly get the emoji keyboard up, and then its a real nightmare trying to find emoji you want, there is no way to kind of enter a search string to find an emoji you want, yes VoiceOver does offer a rotor option to replace emoji, but it doesn't always work in terms of figuring out what emoji you want unless you get wording exactly right, and other times you might be looking for a more abstract emoji so then you have to comb the huge emoji list.
I must admit I do like the way mbraille has its alias commands that might be fun for flicktype further down the line.

I'm loving FlickType. I'm a bit slower with it than I am with Braille Screen input, but i'll get there.

One feature that's messing with me is "raise to read." I guess I was holding my phone at that same level to type, because I was in an area that was hard to hear so I had my phone closer to my ear. I couldn't figure out what was making it so sluggish, and then it occurred to me that it was trying to read instead of write. I disabled that, and all was good again. I wonder if there could be a gesture to read back what's been written? Or if there already is one, and I'm just a little behind, Lol.

I have just updated to the latest version and now the app fails to open.

Thank you, uninstalling and reinstalling the app worked.

I just emailed about the crash... I should have checked here first, Lol. Uninstalling and reinstalling now.

Build 32 is working great, and I love the new settings. I love that everything can be customized. However, I also had to uninstall and reinstall the app, And then restart my phone to get it to work after the update. I also notice a tendency for the tap sounds to fluctuate in volume. This is no big deal, but I'm interested to hear if anyone else has noticed that.

This update is awesome!! I like having choices when it comes to tap sounds. My preference is standard, but choices are always good. The volume changes don't bother me... I didn't notice them until I read this post and they were brought to my attention. I don't think they're a serious issue at all and would rather see time spent on other things pertaining to the app instead of troubleshooting something so small. You guys have been doing a fantastic job, and I appreciate FlickType so much!! It's great to have alternatives for typing... I switch back and forth between Braille screen input and FlickType.

Well in terms of the tap sound, I'm pretty happy with it as it is. It might be nice to have the option to go louder than you currently can, but personally I have it at the 80% mark and am happy at that.
I prefer the alternative sound option.
When deleting, I preferred the old squish sound to the current ding sound.
The stereo feature is interesting, but honestly I don't see any real benefit to it myself.
Dave

I agree with Brooke about the tap sound. Now that I understand why it fluctuates, I don't mind it. It was just something I noticed and was curious about. I like the new tap sound, and I really like having choices. The stereo panning with headphones is so cool. Thank you so much for all your hard work, we really appreciate it. :-)

Hi, I heard somewhere that this would be built in to 11.4, is that true, and if so, how do you enable it.

Sorry @Dustin but that is not true. Curious to know who told you that as there has been no indication at all of such a move.
What is true though, and possibly got misinterpreted, is that Kosta and Ashley are working on a system wide version of the keyboard. Once launched, if you have this, you will no longer need to go into a separate app, but instead be able to use it in place of the regular keyboard.

Dave

Ah ok. Well rest assured that is not related to the version of iOS you're on. I will leave that for Kosta and Ashley to answer, as I honestly don't know. It is very definitely in development though.

I will be watching this closely! I like using flicktype already and could definitely see myself using it more if I could select it as a keyboard, much like emoji or, dare I say, how Fleksy used to be.

I do have a question though. Will this require an additional app download, or will the update to our existing app, for those of us who already have it, give us the system keyboard functionality?

Hi, I'd be interested in beta testing your product if you are still in need of that.