Word Flow is making its way to other platforms, as Microsoft has started working on an iPhone version of its Swype-like keyboard for Windows Phone.
Microsoft has been known to support compatibility of many of its hardware and software products with more than its own platform. This really sets the Redmond company apart from many of its competitors, who often decide to lock down their product. After bringing Cortana to both Android and iOS and making its Universal Mobile Keyboard compatible to these platforms, Microsoft is now looking to speed things up in the texting department for the users of its competitor operating systems. In the very near future, the Word Flow keyboard will be made available for iOS, and soon after that, Android users will be able to use it as well.
Below is the content of the e-mail Microsoft has sent to beta testers registered in the Windows Insiders program:
“Hello,
Do you own an iPhone (5S or newer)? Do you think your native iOS keyboard could use improvement?
Word Flow keyboard has long been one of the highly praised features on Windows Phone and was used to break the Guinness World Record for fastest texting. We are now working on extending this keyboard to other platforms, starting with iOS.
Before publicly releasing this keyboard to the App Store, we’d love to give Insiders like you a preview. With your feedback, we’ll build a roadmap of improvements to the keyboard over time.
If you’re interested in participating in this beta program, just send an email to [email protected] with subject line “I want in!” and we’ll be in touch!
The Windows Insider and Word Flow teams”
If you are a Windows Insider and own an iPhone 5S or newer, you might want to give Word Flow a try. Microsoft seems to be aware of its smaller app ecosystem, and has probably decided to show, on one hand, that what few apps Windows Phone has are excellently built, and on the other hand, that it can improve on what others haven’t perfected, yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM7IdBWtQ6I
Handing over some of Windows 10 Mobile’s unique features has caused anger and frustration in some of Microsoft’s users. While they agree with sharing Cortana and the Office suite, they don’t really see why Word Flow should be shared, as well. After all, these are some of the essential aspects that make Windows 10 Phone unique. More than that, some are taking such announcements as clear signs that Microsoft has given up on Windows 10 Mobile. Such reactions are a bit exaggerated, as people don’t seem to know how these apps work. Cortana gets better the more people use it, and predictive keyboards such as Word Flow are not that far behind. One good point some users made is that Microsoft would bring Word Flow to other platforms, rather than adding more languages, which really doesn’t seem fair.
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