Concerning the space: Transparency is supposed to work with this which means it can take very little space by floating above whatever you're writing on (and you can make it just a grid which means it won't be in the way if you want to once you know the letter positions).

Yes, I do agree that in landscape mode a proper 2×3×3 setup should be better. But then you'd have to learn one layout for portrait and another for layout mode which would raise the bar and probably be downright unattractive to many! I know that I'm happy typing in the current landscape mode with duplicate ABC pads, and I wouldn't want to bother learning another layout just to coax out a couple of WPM from landscape mode exclusively.

That's why I said "is supposed to work"... on my Android device at least, transparency doesn't work at all. As long as the layout just displaces everything at the bottom of the screen then the transparency setting is indeed, as you point out, pretty pointless.

I know windowed apps are certainly possible (e.g. super video); that sucks if android limits the keyboard apps from being so.

From the Minuum page:

• Giving you the benefit of smart auto-correction
• Respecting your familiarity with the QWERTY keyboard so you don’t have to re-learn the keyboard layout

Sure, the QWERTY thing can be helped with a designable layout feature. But it seems to me that this keyboard is heavily dependent on auto-correction and that's a no-go for me then. If it can't be fast without guessing what I'm typing it's not for me. MessagEase delivers impressive speed and power without auto-annoyance! (I've described in a previous post why I must hate autocorrection with a vengeance, no matter how good it may be, but I'll repeat my slogan "prediction only works if you're predictable!".)

That said, I do like the idea of a single row of tap/swipe keys for pads – and probably for landscape typing on my Overly Large Phone (Galaxy Note) as well. The same keys as MessagEase uses could be adapted to such a mode, and I think Exideas have thought about it but chose not to implement it yet at least to avoid confusion. If you recycle the keys from the 3×3(+1) pad into a 1×12 key row you have it, and the fact that you're now typing with all your fingers offsets the loss of proximity between keys. Of course, a layout more like my Colemakoid/QWERTYoid (or a Dvorak-based one) for MessagEase would also give itself to consideration in such a case!

The questions are whether it can be fast and accurate (I think it can), and whether it's too much of a hassle to learn (I think it wouldn't if you recycle your knowledge of either the 3×3 layout or Colemak/QWERTY/Dvorak).

I don't foresee that a typing techinque that depends strongly on you reading the next letter before typing it can be fast enough? So the big whooping 't' sliding into place would probably be just too damn slow, I think? We're competing with 60–80 WPM here (although I never managed above 43 WPM myself).

Good joke, btw – if a bit ... dare I say it ... predictable? :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EAi5Hxoovo

I wonder how much of an improvement that makes.  Definitely can't wait to try it out.

Having tested my speed on touchscreen devices with Dvorak and QWERTY, I can confirm that Dvorak thumb typing is slower for me, even if in theory I'd expect it to be faster due to the frequent alternation of thumbs. (Note: I use the left thumb for spacebar and backspace to balance the right sidedness of the layout.)

Lalop is right - on QWERTY letters are more spread out across the rows which helps the autocorrect correctly guess which keys you meant to press. On Dvorak most typing is done on the homerow and vowels are clustered together which is actually bad for autocorrect. So I have to type more accurately on Dvorak whereas on QWERTY I'm confident that the autocorrect will take care of my mess and I just tap away as fast as I can. In this sense QWERTY is already somewhat optimised for touch screens with high speed relying on autocorrect, unless you buy some sort of tactile overlay to help accuracy (Touchfire for iPad etc).

I recently found a paper describing a new layout called QWERTH which is a layout designed precisely for better autocorrection and accuracy. As with T9 it assigns multiple letters to single keys so that size of the keys can be increased which improves typing accuracy. It also separates "badgrams" to make it more autocorrect friendly. It doesn't appear to be on the Android Play Store yet though.

Esc works with vim touch!

A little annoying how it also requires swiping back, though (unlike Ctrl, Alt), for a key used all the time.  Think I'm going to send an email suggesting we be allowed to set command key movements.  Any tricks for shortening it I might not know about?

Continuing from the Hand Alternation thread:

There's something similar to that, minus dragging: Snapkeys.  Between predictions and learning curve I wasn't really able to get into it, but with your repertoire it seems like something you might give a shot.

It looks like they've replaced the original layout with an alphabetical and QWERTY-based one.

Holy shit! Just came upon a very promising, customizable keyboard:

Multiling O Keyboard

It advertises being able to create your own layout, though I haven't found out how yet. With any luck, we should eventually be able to create our own swipe/tap hybrid layouts without all of messagease's arbitrary restrictions. 

Two-handed ME ftw!

The Minuum form factor sits well on a smart watch. What I wish for is a transparent full-screen MessagEase; that way you see the whole screen while typing on the whole screen – and there's really no space to waste on those smart watches! The downside is that while touching the screen you cover up what you're typing, but I think that's an acceptable concession.

I did try it (IIRC), but the feel wasn't as good as ME. Maybe if the implementation were better.