Who knew that keyboards could be so competitive? After SwiftKey released its new Flow feature, and even included the ability to fly through space, Swype had a pressing need to escalate. Well, how's this for handy: now you no longer need to register in order to download the new Swype beta! In times past, Swype's distribution model has been a little cumbersome. Of course, this will only help people who want in on the beta, but it's still a great thing. Speaking of great things, here's a video of anthropomorphized finger ninjas talking about crowd-sourced dictionaries.

Yeah, you read that right. One of the other new features in this beta is Living Language. Unfortunately, Oxford can be pretty slow to add new words to the dictionary. This new cloud-connected addition can help alleviate the trouble of having to add a ton of new words to your personalized keyboard by including commonly-added items in Swype's predictions. So, "instagram", "bahaha", and "xoxo" can now be predicted as easily as "anthropomorphic finger ninjas."

Grab the new beta below. No registration required! Yay.

Update: Here's the full changelog, found here.

Swype Beta v1.4.0.11523

  • We have thoroughly examined the log files from users who were unable to add or remove words from their Personal Dictionary (as well as the code for Swype Beta itself) and have made changes to ensure that users are always able to add or remove words. After extensive testing we have been unable to reproduce this issue in-house using the latest version of Swype Beta. Further, as a precaution, we have put measures into place that will allow you to continue to utilize your Personal Dictionary in the event that it is wiped or becomes corrupted. We recommend using our Backup & Sync feature as well. This feature will ensure that you can continue to use your customized dictionary. Backup & Sync will force a restore of your saved dictionary in the event that it becomes corrupted.
  • No more Swype Beta user accounts! New and existing Swype Beta users no longer need to register and log in at beta.swype.com nor in the Swype Beta Installer to download and install Swype Beta! -NOTE: This will not affect Personal Dictionary Backup & Sync functionality.
  • Smart Editor: Smart Editor examines words in sentences completed with punctuation (e.g. !/?/./,) and determines if another previously suggested word makes more sense using a visible underline. This is a beta only feature!
  • Living Language: Living Language has been updated to include relevant and trending words via crowd-sourcing among Swype Beta users. Crowd-sourced words are now available to Swype Beta users who opt-in to the service. - Note: Crowd-sourced languages include English, UK English French, French Canadian, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal)
  • Change Dictionary Behavior: Choose whether you want Swype to automatically add words to your Personal Dictionary, or if you’d prefer to have Swype ask you before adding words. Users can toggle this setting in Settings > Personalization.
  • Advanced Language Models added for Catalan, Croatian, Galician, Icelandic, Latvian, Lithuanian, Serbian and Slovenian.
  • Dragon Dictation support added for Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Malay, Romanian, Slovak, Turkish, Thai, Vietnamese, and Ukrainian.
  • We’ve also implemented loads of bug fixes and general performance enhancements! Known Smart Editor Issues:
  • Text sometimes jerks/moves when hitting Space key, with Smart Editor enabled. (text messaging and email)
  • Highlighted words that have been corrected highlight again when other words are corrected.
  • Having ending punctuation at the bottom line of a message (ie: !?.) can cause cursor/text to 'jump.'
  • Word duplicates when pressing delete after choosing a predicted next word
  • With certain HTC devices, selecting a word highlighted by Smart Editor results in text being deleted (OkCupid App only).
  • With Android Spell Checking disabled, a misspelled word is not highlighted as an incorrect word.

Source: Swype