Android 4.4 update installed Swype?

[zjhehe]

So I have a Galaxy S4 and finally updated it to Android 4.4, so you might be going 'wow, Samsung is slower than HTC for once!' and I'll go 'yeah, I know right!'. Anyways, now I'm interested in this 'Swype' keyboard installation that's going on. Before we begin, just thought you should know that I am just curious with who is doing this so it's not really an issue of mine.

Swype can only be disabled, but cannot be uninstalled. I have used Swype before as a trial, but removed it as I liked SwiftKey better. Now I'm almost positive this was a new install with Android 4.4 because I had to go through the welcome screens for Swype when I first selected it as my default keyboard input method. You might ask how did I first notice this? Well, a friend of mine was spamming emoji's because they new I couldn't do it back and so I was going through all the keyboards I had to see if they had a list of Emojis, which looked like is only available on Google's stock keyboard. Anyways, as I'm certain that I did not install Swype, it had to come with the update, but my question (or interest) is who did it?

As far as I know, Samsung has their own keyboard with a SwiftKey licensing to use their word prediction algorithm. Highly doubt Google brought Swype in as it would just introduce competition against their own keyboard and it wouldn't make sense not to implement Emojis on Swype if Google indeed did bring Swype in. I'm speculating that Swype (Nuance really) paid Google to have their application installed on all new 4.4 updates?

 

[zedorda]

You sure your not just talking about gesture typing? Swype is just branded gesture typing. Lots of keyboards have "Swype" type gesture typing.

My Moto X with 4.4.2 doesn't have any Swype software one it.

 

[zjhehe]

To be on the same page here, when you say gesture typing you just mean the ability to drag your finger across several keys without lifting them to produce a word? If this is the case, then I'm not talking about gesture typing. I'm talking about the branding. If you download the Swype app from the Play store, you will see a very unique keyboard developed by Nuance Communications. Now, I'm not talking about the swyping or swiping or gesturing typing feature, I'm talking about the branding. I see this app that cannot be uninstalled, but can only be disabled. It has great resemblance to the Nuance Communications Swype app and the keyboard design is exactly the same.