Word Flow Keyboard with Shape Writing Support

The keyboard in WP8.1 gets a pretty big update with the addition of shape writing support. Similar to Swype, SwiftKey Flow and other systems on Android, instead of tapping individual letters on the Word Flow keyboard you can now trace a path over the same letters to form a word. Instead of tapping out A-N-A-N-D, shape writing allows me to start with my finger on A, trace down and to the right to hit N, trace back to hit A, go down/to the right again to hit N, and then drag my thumb/finger one last time to the left and land on the D key before finally lifting off.

Although new to Windows Phone, shape writing has been around for years on other platforms including Android. The implementation on WP8.1 is excellent however. Shape writing does a great job of leveraging Windows Phone’s predictive text engine. I found that right off the bat I made almost no mistakes while shape writing on WP8.1’s Word Flow keyboard. I could just draw on the screen with my thumb without ever having to look to make sure what I was typing was correct. The only times shape writing didn’t work for me were if I was trying to spell a word that wasn’t yet in the dictionary, or if I was trying to use a contraction that wasn’t immediately obvious (e.g. it’s vs. its). The Word Flow keyboard is extremely quick at adding corrections to its database, so most mistakes happen one time only.

As far as performance goes, I’m still faster at two thumb typing than I am with shape writing. Compared to me typing with a single thumb however, shape writing is substantially quicker. I went through a simple one line typing test several times in all three configurations and recorded my average typing speed on the Nokia Lumia Icon WP8.1 dev preview device:

Windows Phone 8.1 Word Flow Keyboard Typing Speed
  One Handed One Handed Shape Writing Two Handed
Typing Rate (Higher is Better) ~41 wpm ~51 wpm ~60 wpm

With Windows Phone 8, Microsoft added emoji support to the Word Flow keyboard. In WP8.1, emojis are part of the predictive text engine. If you type a word that has an emoji associate with it, you’ll see the emoji in the suggestion bar. Draw out a word with shape writing and the next suggestion will be the emoji representing that word (if one exists).

Autocorrect suggestions still won’t appear if you’re typing too quickly. If you’re typing above ~45 wpm you won’t see any suggestions. Drop below that point and they’ll populate in the suggestions bar.

Camera UI

The Camera UI in Windows Phone 8.1 sees a significant set of updates. Like Action Center, there are five customizable buttons directly on the camera UI. By default you get access to the camera roll, front facing camera, scenes, lenses and flash settings without first going into the overflow menu. Every single one of those buttons is customizable though.

There’s a new low resolution (1080p) burst mode that will capture 15 frames and allow you to save all or only the ones that you want. Unsaved frames are automatically deleted after a customizable period of time (7 days by default) or can be removed manually.

The improvements to the camera UI are nice but on devices like Nokia’s Lumia Icon you’re going to be using Nokia’s Camera app instead, making the enhancements more useful on lower end devices.

Calendar

I won’t spend too much time on the updated Calendar app other than to say that the new week view is awesome:

You get a glance at what you’re doing every day of the week, as well as a tiny view of the month as a whole. Swipe to the right to look at next week, and the week after that. Week view in WP8.1’s calendar app is probably one of the most useful things to me personally on any mobile platform. If you’re Apple or a player in the Android space: copy this feature.

 

Action Center & Cortana WiFi/Data Sense, IE11 & Performance
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  • Hrel - Friday, April 18, 2014 - link

    Get the dolphin browser. The other must have app for me, touchpal keyboard.
  • vanster - Monday, April 21, 2014 - link

    maybe just for some site not all site, yeah iphone and IE not doing what you mean, but i never try it on android
  • StormyParis - Monday, April 14, 2014 - link

    I'm not sure text can be overused as a UI element. I'm a geek, and I'm sometimes baffled by icons or even worse gestures (which have 0 discoverability). Text is immediately obvious, visible... My non-geek relatives feel even more strongly about this:: it doesn't look good, but it is extremmely user-friendly, especially casual-user friendly.
    An example: if I want to send a text, do I click on this envelope, or that one ? "Text" vs "email" is way clearer.
  • StormyParis - Monday, April 14, 2014 - link

    I didn't know only Android had that. Indeed, I use it all the time, whether with the basic browser or Opera.
  • jeffkibuule - Monday, April 14, 2014 - link

    Most people read words in their head before recognizing them, which makes them slower to process in the brain. Plus, compared to images, text is *obviously* language dependent. I often think the white text on black background motif is overdone since it makes apps look rather monotonous. Screens have color for a reason, color communicates a LOT more densely that text ever will.
  • dorekk - Saturday, June 21, 2014 - link

    "Most people read words in their head before recognizing them"

    That's not true. The way most people read is by recognizing whole-word shapes subconsciously.
  • nafhan - Tuesday, April 15, 2014 - link

    That sounds like it would be more of an issue for people changing devices all the time. I just tap the mail icon that's always the same and always in the same spot on my primary home screen.
  • Kenazo - Monday, April 14, 2014 - link

    Next thing we'll be seeing a review of BlackBerry 10.2.1 on the Z30 (actually I wouldn't mind reading that....)
  • creed3020 - Tuesday, April 15, 2014 - link

    Would be nice to see some more coverage in that area but I'm doubtful that AT is going to even consider BB devices.

    For example the BB browser is excellent, it's get a score of 491 out of 555. I'd love to see how a Z30 compares in some of these benchmarks as conducted by a trusted source like AT.
  • cashkennedy - Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - link

    The scores on the HTML5 benchmark are fairly useless because half of the score is for form elements and other silly coding that no one uses. Yes IE11 doesn't support a color input type that will come so handy.

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