Over the past few weeks, we have seen tons of features for Windows Phone 8.1 surface as the SDK and documentation leaked. Along with all of those features, it looks like a new Swype style keyboard will be included with Windows Phone 8.1.
The video below shows convincing evidence that a Swype style keyboard will make its way to Windows Phone 8.1. This type of input allows you to slide your finger across the keyboard to your next letter without the need to lift it off the display and once you master this technique, it allows for faster text input versus conventional typing.
There is another small addition too that will help those of you who love to send emoticons. By typing happy, predictive text can also display an emoticon to help save a few precious keystrokes.
Along with all of the other features, the Windows Phone 8.1 update is turning out to be a significant improvement for the platform. Even though many expect ‘Blue’ to be called Windows Phone 8.1, there are whispers that it could be named Windows Phone 9.
While the latter naming convention seems unlikely as Microsoft likely wants to keep naming parity with its bigger brother, Windows 8.1, considering the wide range of features coming to the platform, it would not be all that surprising if the platform got a bump to 9.
The current expectation is that Microsoft will talk about this update at its BUILD conference that takes place in early April. Seeing that the SDK is in the hands of select developers, work is already underway to build apps that will utilize the new features which means that the launch of the update can not be that far off.
Source and Image Credit: Unleashthephones.com | Thanks for the tip Neils!