Every time that there’s a new update to the Android OS there seems to be a slew of tweaks and added features but, if one’s thing certain it’s that the Keyboard will change a little. There was a slight change from Ice Cream Sandwich to the 4.1 release of Jelly Bean but in the 4.2 flavor of our favorite treat there’s been even more change and it now features something called Gesture Type. A new way to type added to the keyboard that allows you to link letters together and with some clever word prediction that offers above your finger. It’s a good addition to the already good keyboard in Android and with it, the OS goes up against Swype and soon SwiftKey with their Flow keyboard.
It might not be to everybody’s taste but the new keyboard from 4.2 comes with improvements across the board and if you don’t want to spend your type smudging your way across your screen then you can just continue to use it like you would any other keyboard. Keyboards on Android have become a very personal thing to people and a lot of users out there will prefer not to use Google’s stock offering at all but with the new Gesture Type feature built in these naysayers may have reason to come back and give it a go.
The new keyboard is now available in the Play Store for devices running Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) or above and the best thing of all is that it’s free! It’s worth noting that the app has only just hit the Play Store so if your device is listed as incompatible then perhaps sending them a quick e-mail will help.
UPDATE: It looks as if the app has vanished from the Play Store and after some thorough searching I can no longer find it in the Play Store, as soon as it resurfaces we’ll update the link.
