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Microsoft's Windows Phone Keyboard For the iPhone Is Dead (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the dead-as-a-doornail dept.

Microsoft's Word Flow keyboard for the iPhone had one unique feature when it launched more than a year ago: a one-handed mode that could be used with either your left or right thumb. Now, according to a support note spotted by Windows Central, it appears Microsoft is consolidating and removing the keyboard from the App Store, encouraging users to download SwiftKey instead. The Verge reports: Microsoft has tested out a number of iOS keyboards, and it now appears the company is focusing solely on SwiftKey after acquiring the app last year. We haven't seen any major additions to SwitftKey since Microsoft acquired it, apart from a separate Swiftmoji emoji predictor in July last year. Microsoft's SwiftKey keyboard now competes against the likes of Google's Gboard keyboard and various other iOS and Android keyboards. Have you been using Word Flow on your iPhone? If so, what has your experience been with the application? Do you plan on switching to Gboard or another third-party keyboard now that Word Flow is no longer supported?

42 comments

  1. No money to be made by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Once they realized there was no profit to be made, they yanked the rug

    1. Re:No money to be made by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1

      So M$ are copycatting Google now. "Let's get all fired up about a project and then bewilder everyone by dropping it"

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

  2. Secure Keyboard by marc.pn.beaupre · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Another feature of WordFlow was the promise of security. Microsoft, surprisingly, created the keyboard with privacy as a primary feature. I use it personally because I find it to be as good as other swiping keyboard in all regards but superior in terms of privacy.

    1. Re:Secure Keyboard by FalcDot · · Score: 1

      There's AT to PS/2 connectors, PS/2 to USB and USB to whatever your iThingy has. I don't see the problem.

    2. Re:Secure Keyboard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Microsoft, surprisingly, created the keyboard with privacy as a primary feature

      LOL, good one!

    3. Re:Secure Keyboard by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      you could code your own, ios lets you do at least that.
      no promise that contents of textfields will not be sent though.

      if you were using a samsung android and wanted to do a coding and you could firewall the keyboard prediction servers or whatever you want(afaik there is no public non-mdm app to use these samsung mdm apis which basically give you almost root access as well access to the firewall, you need to get a developer code to activate said apis from samsung though).

      I've been looking for a lightweight non predicting kb for android and nobody seems to have actually made a decent one - they all want to pack in features and skins and smileys and shit or they just say it's lightweight because they didn't put in any features... and they seem to use the android views in a non light way to do their thing as well and use tens of megabytes of memory for something that should be doable with 4mbytes(i'm not pulling this number just out of my ass either. I got a launcher that loads up icons on samsung s6 in 600ms from cold start and uses less than 4 megs once loaded. the samsung launcher uses 100 mbytes).

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    4. Re:Secure Keyboard by stephanruby · · Score: 1

      It's too bad Microsoft lost that claim to fame as soon as it acquired Swiftkey and cross-contaminated people's dictionaries while porting the application's backend to its Azure platform.

    5. Re: Secure Keyboard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Look at Multiling O Keyboard.
      No internet permissions and completely configurable.
      Also very small. The swiping feature is not as good as with e.g. swype but you can also disable it.
      Great thing is input method and layout are separate (got QWERTZ for german and chinese keyboard.. easy switching between languages)

    6. Re: Secure Keyboard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, it's about iPhone, well, then you're SOL.. there are no good keyboards there..

    7. Re:Secure Keyboard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You missed the point. Any keyboard that is useful is physical, mechanical and has 104 keys.

    8. Re:Secure Keyboard by erapert · · Score: 1

      ...but superior in terms of privacy...

      You read the source code?

    9. Re:Secure Keyboard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow! I suppose that if wish to use a lean, easy to use computing platform that is simpler to reason about and has lightweight applications I should use a desktop computer.

  3. well crap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I had purchased SwiftKey but had preferred WordFlow over all the other keyboards I had used. Sad AC is sad.

  4. Surface Keyboard... by ckatko · · Score: 2

    The onscreen surface keyboard is actually pretty nice. The special characters aren't as hidden as they are on Android/iOS so you can... you know... actually TYPE a password or directory/url in a reasonable time.

    Everything else about that closed-shit-system however... not so nice.

    p.s. Fuck Microsoft for selling Windows RT tablets... and then discontinuing their support immediately.

    1. Re:Surface Keyboard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Windows RT tablets... and then discontinuing

      This. We bought four hundred Windows tablets with 64 GB of flash that weren't running RT, and we have constant problems with space. Even just trying to upgrade the OS sometimes locks them up. We wanted simple RT, but couldn't buy that. Instead, they're running x86 Windows and most of them have bricked themselves.

    2. Re: Surface Keyboard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Same here. Most of our Suface tablets won't even boot now.

    3. Re: Surface Keyboard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uhh why wouldn't you expect Microsoft to brick devices in order to increase sales?

    4. Re:Surface Keyboard... by rickb928 · · Score: 1

      Fast forward to today - and the Surface Pro keyboard could use a little Word Flow love.

      C'mon, Microsoft, give us a swype-y, even a SwiftKey keyboard for the Surface, in all incarnations. You can do it, right?

      --
      deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
    5. Re:Surface Keyboard... by gravewax · · Score: 1

      how pray tell did you make x86 windows run on an ARM tablet?

    6. Re: Surface Keyboard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is typical of all Microsoft products. Windows can corrupt itself even if it's on a computer that is powered down and not being used.

  5. Why doesnt IOS have a flow keyboard built in? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    why do I even need a flow type keyboard from a 3rd party? why doesn't iOS provide a native flow keyboard (like Gboard, Swype, Flow, etc)

  6. no longer supported does not mean dead by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    long live zombie XP

  7. Useful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Probably going to just keep using it till iOS disables it. The one handed typing is pretty nice.

    1. Re:Useful by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      iOS 11 has this native for the system keyboards.

  8. Who cares? by unixisc · · Score: 1

    Just out of curiosity, who downloads keyboards or other redundant apps to their devices when there's already something there? If one has an iPhone, why would one download a keyboard from either Microsoft or Google - why not just use Apple's own? Only thing I've ever bothered to get was a Bluetooth keyboard that I could use to type, if I needed to do extensive typing on a phone. Similarly, why would any Apple user use Cortana instead of Siri? Why would any Amazon user use Siri instead of Alexa? If you have an Android, why would you bother downloading Outlook when you already have 2 mail apps? If you are an iPhone user, why would you bother downloading Duo, when you already have FaceTime? As it is, main storage is usually limited, so why fill it up w/ more apps that simply do the same thing as apps you can't easily remove?

    From the sound of it, Microsoft's mobile apps are even more useless than the Lumias were. If one is on iOS, there is already things like Pages, Numbers & Keynotes that are pretty adequate. If one is on Android, one can use Google Docs. And this is talking about Microsoft's flagship suite: when one goes to more mundane apps, there's absolutely no reason to go Microsoft. Especially given how they've dropped the Lumias & aborted the Windows Phone platform, for all practical purposes

    1. Re: Who cares? by ewanm89 · · Score: 1

      I have one that adds things like a tab key so I can do things in terminals and text editors. That said I use the default Google one (gboard) on my android devices. However the iOS keyboard is terrible in comparison, especially on tablets. Being able to press and hold for numbers and special characters is great rather than switching the whole layout, and on tablet with gboard you get a row of dedicated numbers given there is room for it.

    2. Re:Who cares? by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      Swift shows 2,368,939 downloads. Sure, some people download multiple times, but plenty of people is the short answer. Swype is also popular, as are others. I personally also have downloaded alternative music players and messaging apps. There is a lot of added functionality out there. K9 Mail is another great one. File Managers as well. I am on Android, but I'm sure the stock apps aren't best in class on iOS either. Apple wants developers, which they won't have if they "stock block" them.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    3. Re:Who cares? by bondsbw · · Score: 1

      Single-handed use is a big reason. Personally for me, it's a huge deal to be able to type with one hand while holding a sleeping baby in the other arm.

      --
      All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
    4. Re:Who cares? by Misagon · · Score: 0

      I am not sure if you are serious or being sarcastic.

      That is, because I have seen too many parents juggling children and phones at the same time. If you are the former: Put down your fucking phone!
      What is the most precious thing in your life? Your phone or your child?

      --
      "We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
    5. Re:Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What kind of BS question is this? Does a baby sleeping on your hand *really* need your full and undivided attention?
      Types like you grow those self-deserving brats that will plague the rest of the society as soon as they're out of your door.

    6. Re:Who cares? by stephanruby · · Score: 2

      If one has an iPhone, why would one download a keyboard from either Microsoft or Google - why not just use Apple's own?

      Not only I downloaded Swiftkey, but it's actually one of the very few apps I actually paid for (before it became free). Please note, I can only speak about Swiftkey pre-Microsoft fuck-up. Before it got purchased by Microsoft and ported to Azure, Swiftkey was awesome!

      It supported multiple-languages out of the box and it allowed me to mix French (accents included) and American English within the same message without switching keyboard/dictionary. I use a mixture of French and English when writing to my own family. The second feature I liked was the option of adding arrows to the keyboard. At the time, the Android support for selecting and navigating through text wasn't very good.

      Later on, they also added Swipe, but I never really got used to that feature. I just used that keyboard without swiping.

      Only thing I've ever bothered to get was a Bluetooth keyboard that I could use to type, if I needed to do extensive typing on a phone.

      Me, I did the opposite, especially when I needed to write in French and use French accents. It was much faster for me to switch from my Mac's physical keyboard to my Android phone with its Swiftkey keyboard. Also, my phone knew what I was about to write before I wrote it, before I even typed a single letter or a single word. To this day, no physical keyboard on any Mac or PC can even come close.

      Similarly, why would any Apple user use Cortana instead of Siri? Why would any Amazon user use Siri instead of Alexa?

      People that have different accents and use different languages for one thing.

      Also, not everyone uses iTunes, or Amazon Videos, or Google Play Movies for their latest movie cravings. Even when I was an Amazon Prime member, only a small portion of movies I watched came from Amazon Prime Videos. And thus far, only Google seemed to have realized this, because the media search on Google TV (now Android TV) has no problem detecting that I have Netflix installed and that it should search through Netflix movies when I want to watch a particular movie.

    7. Re:Who cares? by rickb928 · · Score: 1

      Ok.

      In the beginning, Android on-screen keyboards were inflexible, inaccurate, and ugly.

      Then came the third-party keyboard apps. And beauty. And flexible layouts. And somewhat more accurate.

      In time, these became more accurate, though they have somehow recently become accurate at guessing what THEY thin you meant to type, based on some history you are unfamiliar with.

      And, lo, Google, being Android, brought us Gboard. Flexible, attractive, fairly accurate.

      Just don't try to swype the word 'stop'.

      Choice is good. Even for iOS users. Sometimes.

      --
      deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
    8. Re:Who cares? by rickb928 · · Score: 1

      As Jay Leno told us years ago, it's not the baby in your hand...

      --
      deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
    9. Re: Who cares? by bondsbw · · Score: 1

      My child, which is why I'm holding her instead of throwing her in the crib every time she yawns.

      But my life doesn't suspend just because I have a kid. That work email isn't more important than my napping daughter, but a one-handed keyboard no longer makes me choose.

      --
      All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
    10. Re:Who cares? by TheCastro1689 · · Score: 1

      Apples keyboard doesn't offer swipe to type, doesn't let me search for gifs or the internet for quick videos or pics to send in a chat or links to a website. It doesn't offer one handed support or a dark theme. Cortana was really good at location stuff, answering questions etc, better than Siri. Duo would be so you could talk to Android or Windows Phone users as well I imagine?

    11. Re:Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I find the WordFlow keyboard way better than the stock iPhone keyboard. I like it better than Fleskey too. I can type much faster with WordFlow than any of the other keyboards I've used. Plus for large phones it's curved keyboard mode was great. I'll continue to use WordFlow as long as I can. I'll miss it when it's gone.

    12. Re: Who cares? by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      All that is coming in iOS 11.

    13. Re: Who cares? by ewanm89 · · Score: 1

      So, iOS still doesn't have simple features that I have used regularly for years.

  9. Word Flow is gone!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I didnâ(TM)t even know it existed, but I am so mad Microsoft killed it after only one year. Profits over users!

  10. i loved the flow keyboard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's one reason made me switch to iPhone

  11. Here we go again. by dawnkelly · · Score: 2

    I really like how finding the right tool for the job suddenly becomes an argument that shows what "camp" everyone is in. If it was an app that was made by any other company, the rest of this discussion wouldn't be happening. And yeah, if Cortana was available for iPhone... I might try it because Siri isn't good. Word Flow is a good tool. Everything else is just unnecessary campy political commentary.