Next, a Kickstarter project, comes fully loaded with lightning speed editing, predictive typing, all the emojis you love plus more, playful stickers and stunning themes. The software looks to extend the seamless typing experience provided by Apple’s stock keyboard by adding a thoughtful list of only the best and most meaningful features seen in other third-party keyboards. These include efficient gesture typing, super-fast edits with the quick cursor control, smart next-word predictions, beautiful themes that can be switched on the fly with a simple gesture, emoji suggestions, clear Shift key graphics for on/off states and more.
The app strives to address some of the biggest customer pain points with iOS 8 keyboard to come up with faster ways to type and fix mistakes, especially one-handed on the larger iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Like the Swype keyboard, Next lets you swipe to type. This is especially useful when thumb-typing while holding your iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus in one hand as you can just glide your finger from the first letter of a word to its last letter, lifting only between words. You can also swipe to delete.
Next sports its own word prediction algorithm which guesses what you’re trying to say before you say it by intelligently analyzing the words you’ve already typed. Again, just like Apple’s stock keyboard, dynamically changing suggestions appear as you type, based on context. With Next, no longer do you have to fumble around to move your cursor to just the right spot. Simply drag your finger over the spacebar to precisely position the cursor exactly where you want it.
Emojis have a dedicated button at the rightmost of the word prediction area just above the keys. Tap it anytime to bring up dozens of emojis. You can quickly scroll through them vertically or switch between different emoji groups by tapping on the category icons alongside the bottom, like in the stock Apple keyboard. But Next is taking emojis one step further by offering useful smiley predictions. Based on what you’ve typed, the app takes the pain out of finding the right emoticon by putting emoji suggestions only a tap away. As a nice bonus, the Apple glyph (the sign) is there, too.
With Next, the guessing game as to whether or not the Shift key is ON or OFF ends in one fell swoop. That’s because the difference between the two states is clear to the naked eye. Themes in Next are lightweight, colorful and crisp, unlike some over-the-top looks we’ve seen in other themable keyboards. In addition to light and dark appearances which replicate the calmness of Apple’s stock keyboard perfectly, Next livens up your typing by providing other gorgeously done themes, ranging from blue and green to orange and more.
What really surprised me is that Next doesn’t need full access to function properly and lets you enjoy all its features!The app will be an iOS 8 exclusive .Next Keyboard is currently being tested on the iPhone but they’re planning on making it compatible with iPads. Additional user-requested features will be added after the app launches, like support for other languages (it’s English-only initially). All told, Next is turning into a good-looking, functional and customizable third-party iPhone keyboard with distinguishing features from the others. And its focus on addressing the Shift key issue and solving other annoying customer pain points should earn it the respect of the demanding Apple community.
For more information please visit: http://www.nextkeyboard.co
