The partnerships that Swype has formed with a variety of phone manufacturers has likely done wonders for the growth of their company. Swype is essentially a household name in the Android game, and a lot of that has to do with it coming pre-loaded on all sorts of phones. But one of the frustrating things as a consumer, is watching their beta product continue to receive updates and improvements on a regular basis while the pre-loaded versions on some phones go without them.
The DROID RAZR is a good example. While it may have a spicy black version that no other phone has, it may never see the new Dragon Dictation and advanced language modeling that were introduced this week with the beta. There could be an OS update to the RAZR from Motorola that will include these features, but that could be months out. And since the keyboard is installed as a System app, you cannot remove it or replace it with the beta. So you are stuck with the custom OEM version of Swype while the rest of the Android crew gets to test out new features in the beta. Frustrating, right?
Well, thanks to a member over at XDA, you can get the beta up and running on your phone after following a few simple, yet specific instructions. We do recommend that you only attempt this if you understand the risks involved and are OK with them. And by that, I mean that you could soft brick your phone without many (or any) options to get you back up and running.
Instructions:
*Proceed with caution. If you remove the wrong file, you could potentially soft brick your phone. And I’m not sure there are any files out there to bring you back from the dead for the RAZR.
*You will need to be rooted.
1. Using Root Explorer – Change your default input method to anything other than Swype.
2. Mount file system as R/W
3. Delete (or move/rename) \system\app\swype.apk
4. Delete (or move/rename) \data\dalvik-cache\system@app@Swype.apk@classes.dex
5. Delete (or move/rename) \system\lib\libSwypeCore.so
6. Reboot
7. Download and Run the latest Swype Beta installer
*Note – If you run into force closes after installing the beta, try removing Swype and the Swype Installer under Manage Apps, reboot and install the beta again.
Via: XDA
Cheers Mike!
on my bionic i cant get this to work. i have renamed all the files and also froze swype, i get the swype instaler then attepmt to download swype and it says “licensing swype please wait” and it never gets past that. any tips guys?
Looks like Amazon already starts shipping this Motorola DROID RAZR 4G for Verizon Wireless: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0061OQJTK/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=261211-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0061OQJTK
It worked without a problem on my Droid 3. I renamed the original Swype.apk in Terminal, but the rest of the procedure I did the same as above and it went very smoothly.
This has been a frustrating problem ever since I’ve owned my Droid X. It’s completely idiotic that wouldn’t ever update Swype for the X. But that isn’t that bad, because no matter what slide keyboard I use I always revert back to using Shapewriter. If anyone wants the last version of Shapewriter just leave your email and I’ll do my best to get you a copy. I’m quite busy working but hopefully I’ve have some much needed downtime soon, so I’ll get to it eventually. It’s just a damn shame that Shapewriter never got the chance to be further developed after being bought out. Especially considering that it’s, in my opinion lame, successor Flex T9 just fails in all aspects, and they never update it, and they never ever respond to emails.
tinyurl.ie/7fb
I did this on my wife’s DroidX and all I had to do was rename the Swype.apk in system/app to Swype.old.
this works on the Droid bionic. I did run into a force close issue but re-install fixed that.
Worked perfect on my BIONIC!!
Ouch that’s a lot… I used bloat freezer from the market and froze it then downloaded the new one…. be very careful editing system files there is no return if you mess up you RAZR!!
I uninstalled the old version of Swype with TB and installed the beta…way easier!
whats tb?
Titanium Backup I believe is what he was refeRencing.
…. hasn’t this work around been around since the droid x?
i hate the stupid companies for preinstalling swype. its such a pain to have to get rid of it every time. so glad its not preloaded on the nexus or anything (well i guess thats cuz it doesnt support ICS yet). but i have my droid charge and to get an actually good working swype version i have to root and uninstall it
I’ll have to give this a shot. I’ve been wanting to replace the stock Swype with the beta, but hadn’t gotten around to finding out if there was a work around.
i did steps 1-3, and it worked on my epic 4g touch
will this work with bionic/droid 3?
If you are rooted then you can also do this with Titanium Backup. I uninstalled the preinstalled Swype and installed the beta yesterday. I have an HTC Evo 3D.
would this work on the Bionic? The new swype looks way better then my pre loaded crap.
yes it does.
It’s the same process they have had for the Bionic since it came out. They just figured out it would work on the Razr. Then again anything that works on the Bionic should work on the Razr it’s basically the same software and mostly the same hardware.
It’s not related to hardware in any way though. It’s all the same for the DROID2 GLOBAL; and I’m surprised that libSwypeCore is present on non-slider phones as my research on the topic kind of shows that this library is there to support the ALT LOCK key on the hardware keyboard.
I wonder what does this library actually do?
This has been out since swipe started being preloaded on phones I’ve been doing this every since motorola changed the swipe theme and I hated it.
I just went into root explorer and changed the Swype.apk to Swype.atk and it got rid of the Swype that comes with the phone and installed the beta on my bionic.
I did this on my wife’s DroidX and all I had to do was rename the Swype.apk in system/app to Swype.old. Then I installed the Installer and downloaded Swype.
I didn’t have to do steps 4 or 5.
Tried this on my D2 and it fails to install the new beta. Did you uninstall the old.apk or am I just missing something?
Would this work for the bionic too?