iOS 8 Swype keyboard app; Fleksy and Minuum offer colorful themes, emojis

Swype keyboard app for the iPhone[Photo credit: Swype]

With the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus now out for sale and the iOS 8 being made available, Apple has now allowed its users to choose and replace their default keyboards by selecting from widely known keyboard apps.

Looking into the App Store's Top Charts, Swype, Fleksy, and Color Keyboards are among the Top 5 paid apps, whereas CoolKey, Kiwi, and Swype dominate the Top 5 Free apps.

In particular, it has been reported that Swiftkey has soared to the top of the charts in the App Store's free apps as it has already been downloaded more than one million times.

Meanwhile, Swype has also been raking in positive reviews as it remains one of the most easy-to-use keyboard apps, especially with its swipe-to-type gestures. Swype enable users to slide their finger across letters and characters as opposed to tapping away.

Despite being a trouble-free app, Swype still offers a tutorial in its app menu, and users can select from various themes and languages. It offers English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish versions.

Interestingly, Swype prompts its users to pitch in words to their personal dictionary, even words that are considered slangs and cannot be easily recognized. After adding in one's set of chosen words, the app will remember each of these terms the next time that the user types away.

However, while Swype offers autocorrect, phrase correction, and word prediction, it does not provide emoji support.

If users are looking for keyboard apps that offer colorful and creative emojis, they can easily rely on Fleksy and Minuum. The company that developed Fleksy has claimed that their app is the first ever touchscreen keyboard that has enabled blind typing. Aside from emojis, Fleksy also offers a comprehensive autocorrect system and colorful themes.

Meanwhile, Minuum is ideal for users who are seeking for more screen space for them to fill up with emojis, images, and message threads. Its keyboard has compressed all the characters and letters in one horizontal row and can predict users' next words.