The last time we heard about a new update arriving for the Swype Android beta, it came with the good news that it would be the last such update to require installation via the old, complicated system using a separate installer app. Instead, after that 3.26 beta was installed, future updates would be delivered directly to the app itself OTA. Today, the first such update is going out to testers.

If you’ve been using Swype with its Pan-Asia package installed, today’s update will introduce support for Japanese with kana-kanji conversion. You’ll need the Pan-Asia package specifically; Japanese won’t appear yet for the All Regions version.

If Japanese isn’t your thing, check out the new Context Prediction Engine being activated via this update. The engine does statistical analysis of your typing history, and uses that past data to suggest words as you enter them. According to Swype, that could mean a 40% improvement in accuracy. The only downside at the moment is a bit limited language support, only working with English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.

It could be up to 72 hours before you see the update ready for installation, so keep an eye out for it.

Source: Swype

Via: Android Police