Microsoft’s Word Flow keyboard app lands on iOS

Microsoft has released a next-word predicting keyboard as an iOS app as it seeks to tap into the popularity of Apple’s mobile ecosystem in the hopes of expanding its influence in the mobile productivity space.

The Word Flow app, which was developed by Microsoft’s in-house experimental projects division, Garage, is now live in the U.S. App Store — although it’s not yet available in Europe.

Earlier this month the company had offered beta sign-ups for iOS users but it’s now flicked the switch for users in the U.S. The app was originally developed for its own smartphone platform (née Windows Phone), and has also been offered to users of its desktop product, Windows 10.

As well as next word predictions, the Word Flow app offers the promise of faster texting via a swipe to type input — a la other keyboard apps like Swype. A little more novel is a one-handed typing mode that displays the keyboard as an arc in order to allow for easier typing via just a thumb. Users can also customize the look and feel of the Word Flow keyboard

Keyboard tech was one of the ways Microsoft sought to advance the fortunes of its Windows Phone platform in the early years, as it battled to poach market share from more dominant rivals. One reason to focus its efforts on the keyboard was that Apple initially blocked developers from offering system-wide keyboards on iOS, and was alsoarguably slow to add more advanced features to the native iPhone keyboard leaving a gap for others to exploit.

However, Cupertino changed its stance on system wide keyboards with 2014’s iOS 8, opening up to outside developers and also loading more capabilities into the native keyboard (such as its own next-word prediction tech). Meanwhile, Microsoft’s hopes of building mobile market share momentum, and making a dent in the Android-iOS duopoly, failed to materialize forcing the company to double-down on building apps to try to make a major mark in mobile.

To further this strategy, back in February Microsoft shelled out $250 million to acquire London-based keyboard maker SwiftKey, an early mover in the next-word prediction keyboard tech space. It said at the time that it would be integrating SwiftKey’s technology into its existing Word Flow tech — as well as exploring “scenarios for the integration of the core technology across the breadth of our product and services portfolio.”

Microsoft also said it would continue to offer SwiftKey’s apps, whose functionality clearly overlap with its own Word Flow product — albeit the former can boast rather greater usage. At the time of the acquisition by Redmond, SwiftKey had amassed installs on some 300 million devices across Android, iOS and its SDK products (the vast majority on the Android platform).

Word Flow is not Microsoft’s only keyboard offering. Its Garage division has produced another keyboard app, called Hub, which was on iOS already. But that keyboard app focuses on multitasking and productivity for Office 365 users by letting them search for and share documents from other Microsoft services such as OneDrive and SharePoint. Which is rather less interesting than more open productivity keyboard plays, such as Barcelona-based keyboard startup ThingThing.

While messaging apps have demonstrated the ability to scale out a platform on (another’s mobile) platform, with WhatsApp, for example, passing the 1 billion monthly active users mark earlier this year, it’s far less certain that productivity apps like keyboards can hope to achieve such scale.

Indeed, SwiftKey’s exit to Microsoft suggests there are far harder and more bounded margins on potential growth in the productivity app space. (Which then rather does raise the question why Microsoft has not focused more resources on driving the development and market share of that well-known messaging app Skype that it acquired way back in 2011… ah those Redmond dreams of what could have been!)

Hands on with the Acer Chromebook 14 for Work and Aspire S 13

Yes, there were some new fitness devices, a phone, and a gaming desktop (complete with its own giant piece of luggage), but the real news at Acer’s One World Trade Center-adjacent press conference (aside from some notably stunning views of lower Manhattan) wasnotebooks. And notebooks and notebooks.

Hard to say precisely which device was top dog here, but seeing as how we kicked things off with that new Chromebook the last go-round, let’s just stick to that now, shall we?

Interestingly, Acer was actually referring to the S 13 when it dropped a not-so-veiled allusion to taking on the other company “that starts with in an ‘A,’ ” but allow me to be that guy when I mention, right off the bat that the Chromebook 14 really looks like a MacBook. Sorry, but it does. It’s probably the black keyboard and hinge set against the metallic silver body (Note: It’s definitely that). But, then, if looking like a MacBook was a crime, then Acer’s hardly the only offender.

And there are some notable distinctions here. For one thing, there’s the anti-glare display, something I think about every time I see my own dumb face reflected back at me. I realize it’s not as important a feature as I’m making it out to be, but there you have it. Go be free and use your Chromebook out in the sunshine — or, I suppose, a particularly sunny board room.

That, after all, is the primary case use here. It’s right there in the Chromebook for Work 14’s name, a nod to the inclusion of Google’s Chrome for Work initiative, designed to deploy lots of the laptops across an enterprise or small business, thanks in part to an IT-focused ecosystem.

 

 

I’m sad to report that I’ve yet to test out the device’s rugged design, but Acer assures me that the thing can be dropped from 48 inches without incident. The design lends the device a slightly more plasticky feel than the aforementioned MacBook, but I certainly wouldn’t go so far as to say that it feels cheap. Even more important to my own clumsy computing is the spill resistant keyboard, which can handle up to 11 fluid ounces of liquid, a phenomenon that has destroyed countless computers over the years.

The Chromebook 14 for Work goes on sale next month for an extremely reasonable starting price of $349.

And what of the S 13, the Windows 10 notebook the company used to call out the aforementioned company that “starts with an ‘A’?” Like the Chromebook, the ultrathin sets itself apart with, among other things, its price point. Starting at $699, the computer is priced more on-par with an iPhone than a MacBook.

The device I played around with had a sterile all-white design, which, if past all-white laptops have taught us anything, has the potential to be a real hand-dirt magnet. For now, however, it looks quite pristine, accented by a big, silver hinge, and a textured top. At 2.86 pounds and 0.57-inches thick, the laptop should go largely unnoticed stashed in a backpack.

It looks to be a solid option for users seeking a fully-featured Windows 10 laptop that comes in well under a grand. That device is also set to ship in May. The touchscreen is optional.