Another keyboard that requires network connectivity, profile/contact data, call state, access to photos/recordings (eh?) and even wants to send SMS[1]. Do users really don't care and blindly ignore all security warnings?
Just wondering why keyboard makers don't provide "restricted" builds of their software, that intentionally lack some features, but still serve their purpose by providing an efficient method to type at a reasonable price.
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[1] EDIT: Not sure, this could be localization error in a Play Store. Reportedly it says "read your text messages" in English, but for me what I see roughly translates to "send SMS and MMS".
> Do users really don't care and blindly ignore all security warnings?
Whenever I install an app on my Nexus 5, I click through the "this app wants XYZ permissions" dialog without reading it. Not only do I not read it, I get a little angry each time because I can't do anything with the information and it's just in my way.
Yeah this popup really lacks a way to accept/refuse some permissions based on what seems logical for the app.
I would typically uncheck a lot of permissions on some apps, but since I can't do that I'll just click through if I really want it or cancel if I don't.
BlackBerry 10 has a similar implementation but allows you to choose if you want to enable that feature. When using the app, if it needs a permission you didn't grant, I believe it will prompt you again giving you the option to ignore it (at least that's how I last remember it..)
The SMS permission is so that it can read your SMS messages to use as training data for their word-completion prediction features.
As to why SwiftKey doesn't strip out most of the features that makes it better than the official keyboard and sell it to a small market of people who don't want the features that are the app's actual selling point... well, that's why, those are the features that differentiate them, without them they're not really that special.
> The SMS permission is so that it can read your SMS messages
Either it's a bug in a Play Store, or we're talking about different permissions. For me, it says (in Russian, no idea how to switch language) "Отправка SMS и MMS (может взиматься плата)" which translates to "Sending SMS and MMS (fees may apply)".
Unless Google broke something with their recent permission revamp, I assume it's SEND_SMS, not READ_SMS permission. And that's worrying - I fail to see why should I grant such permission to a keyboard. It's not SMS-sending app, I have a separate one for that.
Or maybe they have separate builds (doing A/B testing, having region-specific versions or something like that). But I guess localization error is a more probable version. Where do I report one?
Hi drdaeman please can you send us a screenshot of where you're seeing the text you mention to reviews@swiftkey.net and briefly recap the issue? We'll get our Support Team to investigate for you. Thank you.
As for features... I thought their primary selling point is being smart - their pattern recognition logic, that translates swipes to words and sentences. A good dictionary, a good language model and so on.
I really doubt the thing that differentiates them from other keyboards is that they learn from message history and sync that over the network.
I can't be sure, but from trying different keyboards, I found SwiftKey seems to be faster to adapt to my particular patterns of language usage. I assume this is because it has access to a reasonable amount of text written by me. In any case, I have found the prediction to be superior to other keyboards I've tried. (Although I haven't tried Fleksy yet. Looks quite promising.)
This is why you need to root your phone, for taking control of your permissions. I'm okay with running these things, but only once they're 'secured' within the ecosystem.
First off, Permissions Manager. Only let applications YOU designate, have access to permissions. Hint: nothing really needs to know where you are.
Secondly: Install a firewall. No-root firewalls are NOT a valid substitute, given that they need to be (re)activated every reboot. By default don't give things internet access, it's even logical, and user friendly.
This doesn't mean that you should have trust, or even faith in these measures. But it makes things significantly more tolerable. You still have a tracking device in your pocket - but at least you have more control over it.
Swype had cried a river when CM tried to do so. Guess, data mining companies who're interesting in obtaining customer data have their ties with Google.
I guess this is part of the continued move away from paid apps - but as a user, I found this confusing.
Swiftkey states that their goal is to get as many people using the app as possible, so they're making it free - but nowhere do they define for their users how they are planning on making money.
That leaves me thinking the one of the following: you'll be selling my data, you'll be doing in-app purchasing, you've found some other magical revenue source, or you'll be going out of business. I don't want to spread FUD here - my point is that as a paying customer this is not a good way to communicate. I have no idea what the strategy is - but if you want me to remain a customer, I personally would like to understand what is going on.
It's beginning to seem like the best approach to selecting software is akin to the best approach to shopping in a supermarket - stick to the edges and avoid the middle. In this case, the two opposite ends of the spectrum might be viable from a security and privacy standpoint - fully-paid commercial software and completely open FOSS are both acceptable, but the middle ground of commercial freeware is best avoided.
"Not mentioned anywhere, not even in the EULA. FUD."
Given that they have no last update date for their Privacy, Terms, et al on their website, I have no idea if these are current.
"Sounds like give away the base app and sell value adds. A perfectly legitimate business model."
As a user of the application, I don't know what they are doing - they did not communicate it. That's my point.
"Err.. did you miss the announcement of the IAP theme store? Because that's exactly what they're doing."
No, I saw that part of the announcement - that doesn't clear it up for me. It indicates that they'll be charging for add-on themes -- nothing else. It doesn't assure me that they'll NOT be selling my data (as an example).
Hi, thanks for the feedback. Protecting your data and maintaining your trust is core to our mission at SwiftKey, and the procedures we have in place are under constant review. You can read an explanation from the founders about why SwiftKey Keyboard is now free here: http://swiftkey.com/en/blog/why-we-set-swiftkey-free/ If you want to find out more about how we keep your data safe, please read our Data Security statement here: http://swiftkey.com/en/data-security/
I have tried many different Android keyboards: Old and new stock ones, swype, ultimate, tons of non-qwerty ones; but I always end up coming back to Swift. It's just the only one that is Precise and Aggressive enough to support really fast typing.
Same for me. Especially because I could never find a competing keyboard that handles multiple languages so well. Only minuum (http://minuum.com/) could be an alternative for me since it is great to have more screen space.
As someone who jumped from Android to iPhone (it was curiosity, not a "I'm fed up with this! ARGH!" thing), I've been seriously missing the ability to use different keyboards. I cannot wait to be able to use them again.
For work I often have to use both. I loathe the iPhone keyboard. Is there a reason they don't change case of the letter display when you change the case of the letters? It seems ridiculous on a touchscreen display. (Done using the swipe of SwiftKey on a Moto E).
They are essentially a keylogger when the 'cloud' service is turned on. It uploads everything you type but tries to detect password fields and avoid them. They insist their security and cryptography is quality, but we've heard that a lot recently.
Their lack of an obvious business model is a bit worrying.
They do send raw unprocessed texts? Thanks for warning.
From my understanding, unless some really tricky and CPU-savvy math's in works, it probably would be more efficient to update language model on-device then push the change. Not only it would somehow avoid (not really, but at least obscure a bit) revealing the exact typed texts, but also lower the necessary server-side processing.
The text prediction still works fine locally without the cloud feature. The data gathering is probably to refine their algorithms. Which I'd expect would include raw text input. Which in a surveillance sense is a bit scary, someone seeing your unfinished thoughts or pre-self-censorship messages.
Hi, thanks for the feedback. SwiftKey Cloud is a secure, opt-in service that allows you to safely backup your language data and sync it across your devices. We take your data security seriously and you can read how we keep your data safe here: http://swiftkey.com/en/data-security/
Yeah, I might should have toned down my flippant tone, but I was genuinely curious as to how they are planning to make money. Obviously in-app themes is one choice, but I don't see that working out in the long run. Hopefully they will do great in the iOS store as it really is a good app!
I found SwiftKey's performance to deteriorate markedly after a few months of use. After that I switched to Kii, which was fine. But now after jumping around I am back to stock, which I actually enjoy a lot more than I did the other two. Google's keyboard feels much more responsive to me and I don't feel like it handles swipe recognition pretty well. It's not as great at prediction but I found using that feature to slow me down anyway. Only feature I really miss is deleting an entire word by swiping space-backspace
No "cloud-enabled" app without snarky comments about data sharing. Sigh. I personally like the dictionary sync across devices. Especially because I use SwiftKey for German which always suffers from terrible dictionary coverage. But what stops you from disabling all online features?
If you have App Ops you can prevent any app from phoning home, or just gathering sensitive data in the first place (although you can't stop a keyboard from storing your keystrokes).
That's a valid concern, though. Why should one invest their time in firewalling their phone or reverse engineering app, when cloud sync could be put into a separate package?
That's simply a question of demand and resources required. This is certainly not a trivial task that requires engineers building it. If more people would voice these concerns it probably something Swiftkey would consider.
Thank you for posting the link to the play store. The verge article I read earlier had no link which is very frustrating when reading something like his on a mobile device.
Isn't the same thing already available on stock Android? I don't use it because I find it pretty inconvenient, but every time I swipe on the keys it appears.
Well, not exactely. When you try stock Android keyboard and then switch to Swiftkey, you realize that Swiftkey is intelligent. Stock keyboard becomes... hmm, ok, at best.
I'm not against it for everyone, I just want to have a choice there. This button usually stands out from the rest and is quite useless when you are actually typing.
I cant understand whySwiftkey still cant learn from WhatsApp. They had such a big advantage in the mobile keyboard market and are going to loose it because of missing new communication channels...
Just wondering why keyboard makers don't provide "restricted" builds of their software, that intentionally lack some features, but still serve their purpose by providing an efficient method to type at a reasonable price.
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[1] EDIT: Not sure, this could be localization error in a Play Store. Reportedly it says "read your text messages" in English, but for me what I see roughly translates to "send SMS and MMS".