REDMOND, Washington – Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has announced it has plans to bring its Word Flow keyboard to iOS. The company is inviting Windows Insiders to a preview program and is promising that the feature, which combines swiping and word correction, will be soon available on Apple’s Apps Store.
“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”, reads the invitation to Windows Insiders.
The company suggested on its official website that the next launch would be on Google’s Android.
Considering that the easy typing experience is added to the list of Windows’ qualities that are no longer exclusive of that operative system, such as Cortana voice assistant and other cross-platform Microsoft apps, Windows Phone users won’t suffer many withdrawal symptoms in case they switch to an iPhone.
Microsoft hasn’t announced the release date for Word Flow on iOS just yet, but public testing is usually released a few months after the Windows Insiders start testing a feature on a new platform.
It remains unclear whether the functionality will be somehow modified on the iPhone. On Windows Phone devices, the feature includes gestures and Swype-style typing to offer an easy-to-use experience.
Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella has been making sure that the platform’s functionalities reach as many consumers as possible. For instance, several Office apps have been launched for iOS and Android. Besides, Cortana was exclusively on Windows Phone and Windows 10 devices until the company released the personal assistant on iOS last year.
Even though Windows remains the world’s most popular computer brand, Windows phones are far behind Android and iOS, the operative systems which dominate the present smartphone market.
Source: Windows Central