Windows Phone 8.1 loses Fastest Soft Keyboard in the World title to 16 year old

2 min. read

Published on May 17, 2014

published on May 17, 2014

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Well, that did not last long. A mere few months after the new Windows Phone World Flow keyboard secured the title of the fastest soft keyboard in the world a Brazilian 16 year old has managed to type the special sentence a 1/3 second faster on the Flesky keyboard on Android.

Marcel Fernandes typed out the 25-word paragraph “The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.” in 18.19 seconds on April 25. The previous record was set in January by Gaurav Sharma, a 15-year-old from Seattle who did the same feat in 18.44 seconds using the new Windows Phone 8.1 Word Flow keyboard.

Unlike Word Flow or Swype, Fleksy still employs a keyboard but uses an algorithm to autocorrect and guess a user’s next word. A user can also customize its appearance, like hiding the space bar on the keyboard.

Fleksy have shown that swiping isn’t always necessary for speed.

The speed at which Windows Phone lost the record exemplifies the issue of built-in OS features always being slower to adapt and respond vs being able to plug in more rapidly evolving 3rd party solutions.

Do our readers think the Windows Phone keyboard, as good as it is, needs to be replaceable? Let us know below.