Swype is a replacement keyboard, it functions differently but in a good way. Sure you can still tap the keys to input text but with swype you can just swipe your finger across the keyboard quickly and efficently to input text. Take for example the word "text" if you were using the regular keyboard you'd have to push each letter one at a time. With swype you just start with the letter t, drag your finger to e, drag your finger to x and drag your finger back upto t. Viola the word text appears on the screen. You don't even have to be very accurate for it to know what you are trying to type. Its really a much more efficent way of inputting text and explaining it here doesn't do it justice. There is a built in guide that you can launch that will teach you how to input text using it. There is also several youtube videos that show you how its done. You should watch the video of 2 people racing to type in a sentance, one person on an android device with swype loaded and someone else on an iphone. The guy on the android finishes a good 5-6 seconds before the other guy and thats just one sentance. Imagine typing a decent sized email. It also auto spaces for you, so you don't have to keep pushing the space bar when typing the next word, you just start with the first letter and swipe the word in. Imo its well worth money if they charged for it and if it ever does go up for sale i'll be one of the first people to buy it