Microsoft Word Flow Keyboard Heads to iPhone, Furthering Windows Phone Dilution
Microsoft is porting yet another app over to iOS, this latest one called Word Flow, a smartphone keyboard app that's similar to Swype. Word Flow allows you to type without lifting your finger off of the keyboard -- you start by touching the first letter in the word you want to type an then slide your finger to each subsequent one.
It's the latest app or service to make the migration over to a competing platform. This has been part of Microsoft's strategy for quite some time now, one that it's ramped up rather aggressively since introducing Windows 10. You can find services like Microsoft's Cortana digital assistant and Office on both Android and iOS, and while Word Flow isn't as big as either of those, it's an app Microsoft thinks highly of.
"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," Microsoft stated.
Microsoft is offering Insiders a preview of the app before releasing it publicly to Apple's App Store. Wording of the email suggests it will require an iPhone 5s model or later.
Why bother with Android and iOS? The most recent data from market tracking firm comScore pegs Microsoft's Windows platform accounting for just 2.8 percent of all smartphones in the U.S. By comparison, Android and iOS combined account for over 96 percent of smartphones.
By making its services available on those platforms, it can still reap some rewards while simultaneously familiarizing Android and iOS users with Windows 10 Mobile components, should they decide to ever make a switch.
It's the latest app or service to make the migration over to a competing platform. This has been part of Microsoft's strategy for quite some time now, one that it's ramped up rather aggressively since introducing Windows 10. You can find services like Microsoft's Cortana digital assistant and Office on both Android and iOS, and while Word Flow isn't as big as either of those, it's an app Microsoft thinks highly of.
"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," Microsoft stated.
Microsoft is offering Insiders a preview of the app before releasing it publicly to Apple's App Store. Wording of the email suggests it will require an iPhone 5s model or later.
Why bother with Android and iOS? The most recent data from market tracking firm comScore pegs Microsoft's Windows platform accounting for just 2.8 percent of all smartphones in the U.S. By comparison, Android and iOS combined account for over 96 percent of smartphones.
By making its services available on those platforms, it can still reap some rewards while simultaneously familiarizing Android and iOS users with Windows 10 Mobile components, should they decide to ever make a switch.
