Thickbuttons - new way to type, forget about Swype tutorials

[Jonny Kansas]

So, this sort of uses a predictive text-like function, right? I just watched the video on Facebook (check it out in action!), and I have a question...What about slang or uncommon words? When it makes certain buttons smaller, can you still click them, or are they completely disabled? I definitely like the idea, but I like to play with words sometimes and wouldn't like it if I couldn't select a certain letter because the phone shrunk it thinking it was useless. As well, will there be a user dictionary so that I can input some of the less-common words that I might like to use on a regular basis?

I definitely like the concept. I don't use the physical keyboard on the Droid, and I've tried Swype, but really like to just type the "old-fashioned way." However, I think this would be ESPECIALLY handy in portrait mode if nothing else for me.

Is it possible (with ANY of these replacements) to make it so the phone uses one type of keyboard in portrait, and one in landscape? My biggest complaint about swype was that it was fairly useful for portrait mode after some getting used to, but I'd still rather just push each button in landscape mode where the buttons are considerably larger.

I feel like this would be the same. I would like buttons that I am likely to use to get larger in portrait mode, but don't have any problem with the size of the buttons in landscape...

(I know this is long, but I like the idea and want to know what's going on here. It was hard for me to get used to leaving my finger on the screen and swiping it around to use swype...)

[blue rocket]

sounds cool, but if it's not multitouch it's a waste

Thanks the comment. Why do you think that without multi-touch you think it is a waste? And how do you see the multi-touch functionality for the keyboard?

I excited to about this idea!

it just makes it sooo much easier to type on I feel...using the iphone keyboard compared to the native android keyboard is like night and day. If you can rock Multitouch with your predictive large buttons...you might have a winner.

I have to also say, i do really love swype, i've gotten really used to it and it makes my life soo much easier. If you have a nice looking (i'm a graphic designer by night... and refuse to use ugly UI's) and functioning keyboard, i'd be more than willing to give it a shot.

[aaf709]

Worth looking at. I'm currently using Shapewriter, but am willing to try other ways of typing.

[MdicnMan]

Very cool concept. Does this turn off the predictive text display or work in conjunction? I frequently will just click the work if the phone figures it out before I finish.

[gentlefury]

so like a gps keyboard. Could be cool, but how do you handle words that aren't in the dictionary (which is what I hate about swype!!) Does it just leave the keyboard alone if it doesnt find any matches?

Oh and I also don't understand the need for multitouch on a keyboard....I only type one letter at a time. Are you able to type 2 letters at a time?

[PhilSTR]

We use Android native dictionary so you always can include any words and it also will keep all words which are already in the dictionary. And yes, you can press shrunk buttons.

We are currently preparing another video to show all functionality of Thickbuttons.

We are going to release Android version in the late March and I am afraid will keep silence till that time.

[jsmcdon1]

I've tried a few alternative keyboards, but this looks really promising. I look forward to seeing a beta to try if you release one.

[th9203]

Lots of PHAT fingers out here looking for every bit of help typing. Bring it on...

[qwerted]

hey, I just stumbled over this discussion here and thought you might want to take a look at qwerted ( QWERTED: lorem ipsum ). It's a bit more sophisticated than thickbuttons, a beta is already available and development is still going on.

[AZDroid09]

ThickButtons is now in the Market, downloaded it free this morning....interesting concept....not sure it's a keeper yet.