Microsoft's New Keyboard for iPhone Has Potential

One of the enduring high points of Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile is the Word Flow software keyboard.

Besides that, you're looking at a largely faithful rendition of the Windows keyboard, complete with Word Flow (swipe-to-type) and suggestions.

News of Microsoft's work on a third-party iOS keyboard first surfaced earlier this month after Microsoft began sending out beta invites to select people for testing purposes. Check out the screenshot below... Apple's former greatest rival is reportedly testing the keyboard internally, and they want to make the keyboard publicly available sometime in the near future.

In particular, I'm keen to find out if its fanlike one-handed mode will prove more effective and thumb-friendly on my iPhone 6s Plus than the typical shifted-to-the-side compact keyboard one-handed layout.

Word Flow, which is also the name of Microsoft's Windows Phone 10 keyboard, has a new twist in that it can fan out the keys in either corner, making it easier to type with one hand, reports The Verge. One can even use the swipe gestures for typing.

With the pending release of Word Flow to iOS and Android devices, Microsoft has been recently showing willingness to share technology that was once exclusive to its devices across all platforms. While we wouldn't mind much about it being the fastest keyboard but the accessibility and the ease of typing is something that would immensely interest me. With one tap on the keyboard, users can toggle between the one-handed mode and the more traditional keyboard display.

It remains unclear why this angled, one-handed, thumb-typing feature has taken this long to re-emerge, but then again, Microsoft's Windows Phone efforts have undergone a lot of changes, such as the company's Nokia acquisition that was created to boost its phone efforts, but fell short.

That being said, Microsoft is quite eager to introduce several of its own apps and features on its competitor's devices.

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Source: Microsoft's New Keyboard for iPhone Has Potential