FlickType Half-screen and Classic Keyboard updates

By FlickType, 28 August, 2018

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Hi FlickType Friends,

We've made some progress on the half-screen mode which is currently in beta, though we still have more work to do. We've also been busy adding some of your favorite features from the Classic FlickType app to the new FlickType app. We hope that you can give the latest update, version 2.8, a try and let us know which of your favorite features, if any, we're still missing in the demo tab of our new app. We'd like to eventually retire the Classic Legacy App and provide everything you need in our new app, to make things easier and less confusing for all of us.

Excited to hear your thoughts!
Ashley

What's new:
- Container app: When exiting the app, the keyboard won't be dismissed.
- Container app: Added "Copy and Clear Text on Exit" function for easier frequent use.
- Bigger, more visually accessible key labels.
- Added "Tap feedback" setting for more responsive taps on touch down. See setting notes for more information.
- Added "Raise to Read Back" setting, off by default. See setting notes for more information.
- Changed icon for "Next Keyboard" button.
- Updated the "Welcome" and "Upgrade" tabs.
- Swapped order of "Demo" and "Upgrade" tabs.

Options

Comments

By Patrick Smyth on Monday, August 27, 2018 - 10:23

I'm a great fan of this app and just want to say...keep up the great work! And thank you.

By That Blind Canuck on Monday, August 27, 2018 - 10:23

Thanks a bunch for the updates, I am finding myself using the app more and more everyday. I do have a couple of questions though.

In the settings, there are two settings that I was kind of hoping someone might be able to provide more clarification on.

The first is "Visual Announcements", not sure what this does exactly.

The second one is, what is the difference between the "Tap Feedback on Touch Up" vs. "Touch Down"? Even with the text below this setting, not really sure as to what it does and the difference between one and the other. I'm sure it is probably very simple too.

Thanks!

By FlickType on Monday, August 27, 2018 - 10:23

In reply to by That Blind Canuck

Hi @Blinken223,

Happy to answer your questions! The first is a low-vision feature where we provide large font visual feedback for the specific word that is being typed, for example, you flick right and a large "hello" takes up the top half of the screen.

The second is a personal preference, some people prefer the immediate tap and flick sounds that occur immediately upon touching down, whereas the slightly delayed feedback on touch up only gives feedback for single finger taps.

Hope that helps,
Ashley

By That Blind Canuck on Monday, August 27, 2018 - 10:23

Hi Ashley, thank you so much for the explanation. It makes more sense now.

Thanks again and keep up the wonderful work.

By J.P. on Monday, August 27, 2018 - 10:23

Thanks for the consistent updates. The keyboard keeps getting better. Its extremely intuitive and has greatly increased my productivity on a daily basis. I probably use this keyboard on 98 % of tasks I do.

By FlickType on Monday, August 27, 2018 - 10:23

In reply to by J.P.

Hi @J.P.,

So happy to hear you're able to use FlickType for the majority of your tasks! Curious, what tasks are you doing when you don't rely on FlickType? We're always trying to make the keyboard as great as possible so any additional feedback you share is greatly helpful.

Warmly,
Ashley

By J.P. on Monday, August 27, 2018 - 10:23

The only time I'm not using keyboard is when entering credentials. When I have to enter usernames and passwords manually, I find using the Apple touch keyboard faster option for me. Otherwise, everything else is with FlickType.

By FlickType on Monday, August 27, 2018 - 10:23

In reply to by J.P.

Hi J.P.,

Thanks for following up, we're really happy to hear. Apple almost always requires their keyboard be used for credentials, so it sounds like you're using the keyboard at its maximum potential. I should say, maximum potential as it stands today as we have many new and exciting improvements in the pipeline.

Thanks, again!

Warmly,
Ashley

By Andy Lane on Thursday, September 27, 2018 - 10:23

Hey, just wanted to comment that this will be the update I am most excited about. I currently don’t use the flicktype keyboard although I pay a monthly subscription as the full screen keyboard completely changes the way you need to interact with the device. I have been waiting for the update which would give flicktype the same user experience as other iOS keyboards as I find it essential to be able to access the screen behind the keyboard while using. Happy to support until this update lands even while not actively using. Would you also be able to comment on any differences between flicktype and flecsis dictionary as flicktype seems to have significantly less words included in its standard dictionary, the obvious ones are swear words but I find myself having to manually enter words when I tried it far more than I remember having to with flecsi. Thanks again for a great app and I hope it proves financially viable so you can continue development on it.

By kool_turk on Thursday, September 27, 2018 - 10:23

I use to like how fleksy did capitle letters, you would type a letter like normal, then just do a swipe up to capitalise the letter.

Entering numbers could be done two ways, there was a number on the row which had some common symbols, after entering that number swiping up and down would change the numbers.

The other way was to switch to the numbers, which happened to be like a numeric keypad.

I'm basing this off what was later dubbed fleksy VO.

By Dave Nason on Thursday, September 27, 2018 - 10:23

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Gotta say I much prefer the way FlickType does it. The 3D touch to capitalize a letter is absolutely beautiful. I also like how the number and punctuation keyboards mirror the standard iOS keyboard.
At first I was also unsure of these changes, but I very quickly got used to them and found them great.

By FlickType on Thursday, September 27, 2018 - 10:23

Hi @Andy_Lane,

Thanks for the continued support! We are working around the clock to have a reliable half-screen option, and have made much progress since this post a few days ago! Smile. We certainly agree that we need to upgrade our dictionary, and plan to do so. Due to the way our autocorrect and word ranking works, this is one of the larger tasks on our roadmap so it will take us some time. We hope the ease of adding new words to the dictionary helps alleviate some of the inconvenience.

@Kool_Turk and @Dave82,
Thanks for the feedback. We put a lot of thought into the new gestures and generally opted for gestures that can be done the fastest. Other than the initial adjustment, we haven't heard too much about the new gesture system.

Anyone else have thoughts on the new gestures?

Cheers!
Ashley