Roger Fingas
Microsoft is reportedly working on bringing the Windows Phone keyboard — known as Word Flow — to iOS devices, marking the arrival of yet another feature previously exclusive to Microsoft platforms.
Windows Insider testers are now being recruited to test Word Flow on the iPhone, according to The Verge. Microsoft didn't say when the port might be finished, but public testing would normally imply a release no more than a few months from now.
On Windows Phone devices, Word Flow offers features like gestures and Swype-style typing, which aren't unique in the smartphone world but can make the platform easier to use.
Under CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft has been more willing to ditch platform exclusivity in favor of getting products in front of as many people as possible. Numerous Office apps are now available on iOS and Android, and most recently the company ported its Cortana voice assistant. Until that point, Cortana was considered a signature feature of Windows Phone and Windows 10.
Though Windows is still the most popular computer brand worldwide, Windows phones have largely failed to catch on — the current smartphone market is dominated almost exclusively by iOS and Android.
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9 Comments
Keyboard : the primary R&D topic for MSFT .....
Wait... They're releasing a Swipe clone, and people care?
That keyboard makes me cringe everytime I see one. Thankfully it's very rare. I don't think this will be very popular on iOS, since it may be one of the primary reasons people don't buy their phones.
Actually a clever strategy from Microsoft assuming the software/apps work well and people become reliant on them. The long game for them is to make Microsoft products so ubiquitous that it makes it easy for someone to move from an iPhone to a Windows phone without a second thought. I personally dont think they can pull it off as most of their apps are Shite... I downloaded a selfie app of theirs the other day just to test out and it crashed repeatedly....so nothing has changed....