It has taken three years, but Swype is finally losing its Beta tag and has hit the Google Play store. The app is available as a free trial version that’ll work for 30 days and a 99c version, and the two builds will eventually be available as a single version sometime in the future.

But are they a bit late? While Swype was busy getting its keyboard pre-installed on Android smartphones, competing apps such as SwiftKey, SlideIT, and TouchPal were going straight to the consumers. And also the gesture typing feature became available with Android 4.2.

But the folks at Swype, which is now a division of Nuance, are not too worried. Aaron Sheedy, Nuance’s VP of Mobile Product says, “Yeah, we might be late. That’s an honest concern. But the adoption of smartphones is still just so huge, and there’s a whole generation of people just coming online. Our language coverage is such that we’ll do really well in the [international] markets; we’ve got [support for] 62 languages, plus a bunch of dialects”. And also, OEMs are still paying licensing fees on every Swype-enabled device.

So far Swype seems to be getting good reviews from users who have installed it (unlike another new app). The free trial version is available here, and here’s the 99c version. If you are going for the paid version you better make it quick as the price is expected to go up in the coming weeks.

So, have you installed it yet? Interested in some swyping and driving?

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When it comes to after-market keyboard replacement apps, there are quite a few out there but, for the most part, the only one that really has made any major headway seems to be Swype. To be honest, I’d not a huge fan of Swype and prefer the default keyboard, but for many people it’s a wonderful choice with just one major flaw- it’s made for one-handed input, and some users would rather have a keyboard that works great with both hands.

This is exactly why Keymonk was introduced, essentially a Swype-like keyboard that is modified to work well with two-handed input. The app is polished and seems to work well enough from the videos, and could be perfect for those that want a two-handed Swype experience. That being said, I have a strong feeling that this would be a “learning curve” when it comes to getting used to such a keyboard. Once the learning period is over though? This could be a pretty interesting choice.

To get a better look at it, check out the video below.

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I personally gave this keyboard a go, myself, and found it wasn’t at all a bad offering, certainly better than it might sound just by hearing about it. Honestly though, I still prefer using Swype, but to each their own. I did like the idea of quick phrases like “how are you”, “can you talk”, and the like, but honestly it sometimes seemed to take more clicks and swipes to get to these features than I would have liked.

It is certainly a cool idea and for some users might prove quite useful. Check out the video below to see it in action, and/or try it for yourself from the Android market, er, Google Play store.

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