SwiftKey 4 for Android review: The best Android keyboard we've reviewed

One thing I like is that enabling Flow doesn't necessarily mean you have to type with gliding gestures all the time. In fact, you can always easily switch back and forth between the Flow style of typing and the traditional finger-tapping style, and SwiftKey won't even blink.

Just like previous versions, SwiftKey 4 makes predictions as you type, even if you're using Flow. If you see one that's right, you can simply lift your finger off the screen while flowing, and that word will automatically be used. This blending of predictions and Flow-style typing may seem a little unnatural to use at first, but with some practice, it can be an incredibly speedy way of entering words.

More than just a new set of keys, though, SwiftKey offers a full set of tools for improving the efficiency of your typing. Under the settings menu, you'll find a list of how-to videos, prediction settings, and layouts. The app also has a statistics section where you can see how many keystrokes SwiftKey has saved you and how many typos it's corrected. Plus, there's a nifty "heat map" that shows how accurately you type and on which keys you tend to make mistakes. You can even share these statistics via Android's share menu, if you'd like, though this feature is probably more useful to SwiftKey's marketing team than it is to you. Lastly, you can customize the keyboard for your typing style, change the color scheme, and even adjust key height to suit your tapping needs.

Between the phone and tablet versions of SwiftKey, most of the features are the same. Both support dozens of languages and offer the same customization options. The tablet version, though, does let you switch between a normal keyboard and a split keyboard when in landscape mode. This split keyboard pushes the letters close to the edges of your tablet (by putting the number pad in the middle of the screen), so you can more easily type out words with only your thumbs.

With all its customization options, scary-smart technology, and newly integrated Flow feature, I can't recommend SwiftKey highly enough. It is, quite simply, my favorite keyboard replacement app on Android. Sure, it costs $3.99, which might be a bit steep for some people, but I think it's well worth the price.