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Samsung’s new flagship device has officially been unveiled, and it has a lot of new features packed in. But what many aren’t talking about is the device’s on-screen keyboard, which, arguably, is one of the most important aspects of its interface.
In an attempt to improve on its previous flagship phone, Samsung has partnered with third-party keyboard maker SwiftKey to have its proprietary technology built into the Galaxy S4 keyboard.
Despite not knowing the extent of the companies’ partnership as yet, we think the move looks like a solid one. Samsung gets some ultrapowerful typing technology to power its keyboard, while SwiftKey extends its reach with placement on a high-profile device. To be clear, though, the GS4’s keyboard will not be branded as a SwiftKey product. It will just have the tech baked in.
From the New York launch of the GS4, Dr. Ben Medlock, cofounder and CTO of SwiftKey, confirmed that,
“Samsung has chosen SwiftKey’s innovative keyboard technology to be at the heart of its flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S4. This is fantastic progress for our vision of bringing the best touch-screen typing experience to as many people as possible.”
It’s no secret that SwiftKey is one of our favorite Android keyboards available. It has earned high marks here at CNET and has been a Google Play Editors’ Choice app for quite some time. And with its latest version, SwiftKey 4, the keyboard added support for SwiftKey Flow, a gesture-based input style that was initially made popular by Swype. This feature, along with SwiftKey’s incredibly “smart” predictive technology make the keyboard a pleasure to use. And now the keyboard will be available to Samsung Galaxy S4 owners, right out of the box.
Meet the stunning Samsung Galaxy S4 (pictures)
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