Anyone else having major issues with Swype after the KitKat update?
wkavan02
Contributor - Level 1

Since the KitKat update pushed to my SGS3, I have had a number of big issues with my phone, which the benefits of KitKat cannot outweigh in order to make me happy about this update. In addition to the battery life and performance problems which many of you have also reported encountering, I've had major issues with the Swype keyboard.

Here are the issues I've encountered with Swype

  • Huge spikes in lag on input recognition: I can Swype a word and the tracer line can take several seconds to appear, which sometimes causes it to not recognize that I ended my Swype, requiring me to tap the end of the tracer line as accurately as I can to try and salvage the word I was Swyping, but more often than not, I end up having to delete the word and try again
  • "Dropped" words: Sometimes, when I successfully Swype a word (tracer line appears, I was very accurate in my Swyping, etc), it fails to input the word and will just give me a space. No selection of "did you mean?" words above the keyboard, no "sorry try again" message above the keyboard, nothing, just a space
  • Lack of input recognition when receiving text messages: this might be a phone performance issue and not Swype's fault (actually, all my issues might be and probably are caused by the massive performance drop caused by this boondoggle of an OS update) but when I receive text messages while I'm writing something, Swype will lock up and stop recognizing my inputs for a few seconds while the phone handles the arrival of the new text message
  • Load Lag: when selecting a text field to start inputting text, whether it be in Chrome, the default text messaging, Facebook, or Gmail, it can be several seconds for the Swype keyboard to appear (the longest I've seen is 20 seconds). I've encountered this in a number of scenarios, including times when the text field I was using was in the only running app following a close of all other apps and a dumping of the RAM cache to free up memory capacity, so it does not seem to be isolated to times of high CPU and/or RAM load.

Anyone else experiencing one or more of these problems with Swype? If so, have you been able to solve them without sacrificing Swype? I fell in love with this keyboard back in the days of my Moto Droid X, so I don't want to give it up unless I absolutely have to.

Thanks!

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Re: Anyone else having major issues with Swype after the KitKat update?
Ann154
Community Leader
Community Leader

Are you using the Swype Keyboard application from the Play Store? Have you considered emailing the developer directly for questions and assistance with your issues with the application?

I'm most definitely NOT a VZW employee. If a post answered your question, please mark it as the answer.

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Re: Anyone else having major issues with Swype after the KitKat update?
Davidoo
Contributor - Level 3

I'm using the stock Swype application that is already on the phone (not from the play store) and it works great with none of those problems.  Not sure if the original poster is using the stock version of Swype that does get updated with these updates, or downloaded another version from the Play Store as Ann154 mentioned.  There is really no reason to download it from the Play Store when it is already on the phone, so I assume they are using the stock version.  Again, I've had zero issues with Swype or anything else with this update. 

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Re: Anyone else having major issues with Swype after the KitKat update?
wkavan02
Contributor - Level 1

Stock version, fully up to date. I've even fiddled around with the settings to try and see if I can decrease the performance load of the keyboard. No success. It just seems like the KitKat update has been a heap of garbage for many SGS3 owners.

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Re: Anyone else having major issues with Swype after the KitKat update?
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

wkavan02,

I am so sorry to hear about the issues you have been having with Swype since the software update. I too use Swype as my choice of keyboard style on my device. Have you tried to force close and clear cache/data on the Swype keyboard under settings? Please try this http://vz.to/1jIIrur

LindseyT_VZW

Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

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Re: Anyone else having major issues with Swype after the KitKat update?
HonGDB
Enthusiast - Level 2

Yes! On a Moto X (4.4.2) and Nexus7.2 (4.4.4). Steadily laggier and laggier Swype, so slow it misses entire words. After years of using Swype, and paying for it to boot, if things don't improve I'll have to uninstall and go to the native keyboard.

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