Microsoft To Acquire SwiftKey Predictive Keyboard Technology Company For $250M (hothardware.com)

MojoKid writes: SwiftKey has been one of the more popular predictive keyboard offerings in the mobile space since it was first released in beta form on the Android market back in 2010. What made SwiftKey so appealing was its intelligent predictive texting technology. SwiftKey isn't a simple keyboard replacement. Rather, the software uses a combination of artificial intelligence technologies that give it the ability to learn usage patterns and predict the next word the user most likely intends to type. SwiftKey refines its predictions, learning over time by analyzing data from SMS, Facebook, and Twitter messages, then offering predictions based on the text being entered at the time. It is estimated that SwiftKey is installed on upwards of 500 million mobile devices. According to reports, Microsoft is apparently buying the UK-based company for a cool $250 Million. What Microsoft intends to do with SwiftKey is not clear just yet, but the company has been purchasing mobile apps at a good clip as of late.

Comments

Abandon ship

[LichtSpektren]

So what's everybody's favorite alternative, since SwiftKey is owned by a company that is nowadays renowned for its spyware and keylogging?

Re:Abandon ship

[gstoddart]

gesture typing (tracing the words) made me finally decide there was something better *for mobile*

I find I can "type" almost as fast with the Google keyboard by tracing my finger over letters as I can on a keyboard.

It's actually my preferred form of mobile input.

Now get up to the scale where my fingers can actually fit on a keyboard, physical keyboard wins hands down for speed and accuracy.

Bluetooth keyboards. They're easy enough to find.

If you're doing enough typing on your mobile device that you need to type faster, get an actual keyboard.

I've got a case for my Nexus 7 I paid like $30-$40 at Wal Mart (been a while, can't remember how much). It's got a Bluetooth keyboard in it, which you can sync with pretty much anything. I've actually got it paired with a couple of different things because they'll never be in use at the same time.

If you need a physical keyboard, they're cheap enough that you can solve that problem ... apparently Logitech makes a unit you can get for $30 if you look around.

This is a solved problem, and has been for some number of years. A kickstand case to prop it up, and a Bluetooth keyboard turns any tablet into a "convertible" where you can type at properly.

You could do this long before companies started attaching keyboards to tablets. And you can do it a hell of a lot cheaper.

Re:Abandon ship

[Anonymous Coward]

Swype. On my G3 I have both Swype and Swiftkey.
I generally use Swiftkey, but if Microsoft kills it on Android, Swype will do the affair just fine.

Re:Abandon ship

[Aaden42]

I've tried (and tried (and tried...)) to like NinType. Main differentiating point is that it allows you to use gesture based typing with two fingers. So you can hold the phone in two hands and use two thumbs to type. Less stretching to reach the opposite side (especially on phablets) when you can just finish a word with your other thumb.

I've never quite been able to get comfortable with it, and honestly it has an interface only a Gentoo user (or nuclear control room tech) could love. Soooo many buttons...

Maybe time for another try...

Data?

[ohnocitizen]

Does SwiftKey phone home what users are typing? $250 million seems a lot for an input method, more reasonable for a large set of data for them to analyze.

Re:Data?

[xeoron]

They, also, license their tech to companies and provide a SDK for developers to include their prediction engine in products. BB10 even uses Switfkey tech in it.

Re:Data?

[_merlin]

It doesn't phone home if you don't sign in to a Google account on your phone. Annoyingly it doesn't learn words if you don't allow it to phone home. Samsung replaced their internally developed predictive keyboard with one powered by SwiftKey. The net result for me was that it's more sluggish and doesn't learn words any more, since I don't have a Google account and wouldn't sign in to one even if I did.

Re:The smartphone war is over

[gtall]

The app market is too tiny to tickle MS's books. I rather think that they are buying apps to make sure they appear on MS's alleged phone in a bid for it to stay relevant in a market that is cannibalizing to some extent PCs.

They all do

[Overzeetop]

It's how they make predictive typing work.

Half of me is delighted that W10 could actually get a useful keyboard. Half of me thinks they will utterly fumble the transition and, like most things MS tries to bolt on, it will suck horribly but will become the standard (And only) keyboard on W10 touch.

All of me knows that they will be using the data to improve their marketing side of the business. I'd worry about that, but I sold my soul (or at least all of my worldly data) to Google a decade ago, and it's always easier the second time.

Re:They all do

[pr0fessor]

I imagine they are getting more than just a predictive keyboard there are probably licensable patents as well services they can sell to more than just windows users.

If I where running Microsoft with the way windows mobile is perceived now I would be looking to get as many services, apps, and patents as possible that could be licensed in every other mobile OS and mobiles apps.

What Microsoft intends to do with SwiftKey ...

[c0d3g33k]

... is not clear just yet

Based on recent attempts to push telemetry via updates and the monitoring built in to Windows 10, using SwiftKey as a key logger to gather information on mobile users seems possible.

Re:First the Windows 10 Keyloggers, now this?

[TwentyCharsIsNotEnou]

They could log keystrokes without buying SwiftKey.

Maybe they just want to add a great keyboard to their windows phones, without allowing 3rd party keyboard support.

Go figure

[c]

Microsoft learned a long time ago that buying stuff that people already like is far easier than creating stuff that people like.

Patents?

[Crowd Computing]

Maybe Microsoft is acquiring more weapons for its mobile patents war chest. Or defense, given the madness of the IP landscape that ensures only the big boys can innovate.

Love, Grandmaster Flash

[Pseudonymous Powers]

Predictive keyboard? Sounds like autocorrect to me. And I hate those things. They make too many assumptions. I mean, how does it know I wasn't going to write about my "gigantic throbbing coconspirator"?

Re:Love, Grandmaster Flash

[Quirkz]

My brother and I like to trade spoonerisms. Spelling is often intentionally a little creative. I think I spend more time retyping the thing I put in there and it "fixed" for me than it saves in fixing things I mistype.

Re:Love, Grandmaster Flash

[sunderland56]

No, it's *worse* than autocorrect. If you look at twitter, Facebook, or any social media, you'll find that people have completely horrible spelling and grammar. Swiftkey will try to make your posts look just like theirs.

I'm sure that after replying to their boss with a "Like totally dude, sounds rad" text message, most people will turn this feature off.

Re:First the Windows 10 Keyloggers, now this?

[gstoddart]

This has been debunked. There is no keylogger. If you have a packet capture that says otherwise, feel free to correct everyone that bothered to look into it.

Purely to play Devil's advocate, but why would a keylogger show in a packet capture?

Microsoft sends home enough payloads of data that, if one was designing a super secret key logging mechanism, you'd just save up the data and send it with that stuff.

Sending packets with every keystroke would be wasteful and obvious.

Without seeing every data payload of what MS is including in their telemetry and other crap they've pushed into the OS, and accounting for all of it, I fail to see how you can make that conclusion.

If there's chunks of binary data MS won't tell you what it is, you have no way of knowing what's in it.

I have no idea what MS does and doesn't send, because I've never looked into it ... but hiding a keylogger from packet sniffing when you already call home?

That's not exactly rocket science. In fact, it's the kind of obvious solution when you're already sending other data.

Re:The smartphone war is over

[Rob Y.]

I'm surprised there's still a 'market' for SwiftKey these days. The native Google keyboard in Android does the same stuff pretty well nowadays. I'd be surprised if Apple didn't also do the same.