name see swiftype . swiftkey original author s jon reynolds and dr ben medlock developer s swiftkey subsidiary of microsoft development status active operating system ios android available in 100 languages type virtual keyboard license proprietary alexa rank 28 003 1 website swiftkey.com swiftkey is an input method for android and ios devices such as smartphones and tablets . swiftkey uses a blend of artificial intelligence technologies that enable it to predict the next word the user intends to type . 2 swiftkey learns from previous sms messages and output predictions based on currently input text and what it has learned . the company behind swiftkey was founded in 2008 by jon reynolds dr ben medlock 3 and chris hill scott . 4 it employs a staff of over 160 people . its head office is in southwark london and other offices are located in san francisco us and seoul south korea . 3 in september 2013 swiftkey announced a series b finance round totaling 17.5 million and led by index ventures along with octopus investments and accel partners . 5 in february 2016 swiftkey was purchased by microsoft for 250 million . 6 7 8 9 contents 1 software 2 versions 2.1 beta 2.2 swiftkey x 2.3 swiftkey 3 2.4 swiftkey 4 2.5 swiftkey 5 2.6 swiftkey 6 2.7 swiftkey for ios 2.8 swiftkey for iphone 2.9 further development 3 awards 4 competitors 5 privacy concerns 6 see also 7 references 8 external links software edit the prediction engine used allows swiftkey to learn from usage and improve predictions . 10 this feature allows the tool to improve with usage 10 learning from sms facebook gmail twitter and an rss feed . a maximum of three languages can be used simultaneously . currently supported languages afrikaans albanian arabic aragonese armenian assamese asturian azerbaijani basque belarusian bengali bodo bosnian breton bulgarian burmese catalan chinese simplified chinese traditional hk chinese traditional tw croatian czech danish dhivehi maldivian dogri dutch english au english ca english uk english us esperanto estonian faroese finnish french ca french fr frisian galician georgian german greek gujarati hausa hebrew hindi hinglish hungarian icelandic igbo indonesian irish italian japanese javanese kannada kashmiri kazakh khmer konkani konkani kannada korean kurdish sorani kyrgyz lao latvian lithuanian luxembourgish macedonian maithili malagasy malay malayalam maltese manipuri marathi mongolian nepali norwegian bokm l norwegian nynorsk occitan oriya persian farsi polish portuguese br portuguese pt punjabi romanian russian sanskrit santali serbian serbian cyrillic sindhi india sinhala slovak slovenian spanish es spanish latin america spanish us sundanese swahili swedish tagalog tajik tamil tatar telugu thai turkish turkmen ukrainian urdu uzbek vietnamese welsh xhosa yoruba zulu versions edit beta edit swiftkey was first released as a beta in the android market on 14 july 2010 supporting seven languages . it included a variety of settings to adjust audio feedback volume and length of haptic feedback vibration . it was announced on swiftkey s official website on 15 may 2014 that a japanese version is out on beta . people registered on swiftkey vip were able to download the beta version . 10 swiftkey x edit on 14 july 2011 swiftkey x was released to the android market as an upgrade to swiftkey . along with new and updated features swiftkey x introduced a dedicated app for tablets called swiftkey tablet x. the updates included 11 a new artificial intelligence engine to predict phrases and learn the user s writing style a cloud based personalization service which analyzes how the user types in gmail twitter facebook and text messages to predict phrases in the user s style a technology that continually monitors the user s typing precision and adapts the touch sensitive area of the touch screen for each key simultaneous use of multiple languages ; this allows users to type in up to three languages at once with auto correction that is language aware split key layout on swiftkey tablet x to improve thumb typing while using a larger touchscreen additional language support new themes swiftkey 3 edit the swiftkey 3 update 12 was released on 21 june 2012 including smart space this detects spurious or missing spaces in real time enhanced user interface with a larger space bar and smart punctuation key two new themes cobalt and holo additional language support swiftkey 4 edit the swiftkey 4 update 13 was released on 20 february 2013 including swiftkey flow a gesture input method with real time predictions flow through space a gesture to input whole sentences by gliding to the spacebar an enhanced prediction engine additional language support raising the total to 60 swiftkey 4.2 introduced swiftkey cloud allowing users to backup and sync their language behavior and software settings plus trending phrases a feature adding the phrases causing a buzz on twitter and localized news sites swiftkey 5 edit the swiftkey 5 update 14 was released in june 2014 including freemium transition the app dropped its price tag to be free to download swiftkey store theme store of free and paid for color schemes for the app emoji 800 emoji were added plus emoji prediction feature which learns to predict relevant emoji icons number row a row of number keys option added in response to customer requests new languages including belarusian mongolian tatar uzbek and welsh added swiftkey 6 edit the swiftkey 6 update 14 was released in november 2015 including double word prediction which adds a new dimension to the predictions you see predicting your next two words at once and helping you type faster than ever . a redesign of the emoji panel making it more accessible and speedy a complete overhaul of the settings menu in the style of material design to make it easier to fine tune and customize the keyboard 5 new languages added yoruba igbo zulu xhosa & breton swiftkey for ios edit swiftkey released an ios application on 30 january 2014 called swiftkey note that incorporates its predictive typing technology as a custom toolbar attached to the top of the regular ios keyboard . 15 starting with ios 8 released in the second half of 2014 the operating system enables and support third party keyboards use . swiftkey confirmed that it was working on a keyboard replacement app . 16 swiftkey for iphone edit swiftkey keyboard for iphone ipad and ipod touch launched in september 2014 to coincide with the launch of apple s ios8 update . it was unveiled at techcrunch disrupt in san francisco . 17 the app includes the word prediction and autocorrection features familiar to the android product swiftkey cloud backup and sync and personalization and a choice of color themes . it reached no. 1 in the free us app store charts and the company confirmed it had been downloaded more than 1 million times on the first day of launch . citation needed further development edit on 27 february 2012 the swiftkey sdk was launched . 18 this allows developers on multiple platforms and programming languages to access swiftkey s core language engine technology for their own ui or virtual keyboard . 18 in june 2012 swiftkey released a specialized version of its keyboard called swiftkey healthcare . it is a virtual keyboard for ios android windows phone and blackberry devices that offers next word predictions based on real world clinical data . 19 in october 2012 swiftkey healthcare won the appsters award for best enterprise app 2012 . 20 in april 2016 swiftkey released a keyboard that emulated william shakespeare s speech called shakespeak celebrating the 400th year of the author s death . 21 the app was co developed with visitlondon.com to promote more tourism to the metropolitan area of london . 22 awards edit swiftkey has received many awards including sunday times hiscox tech track 100 2014 ranked 3rd place 23 meffy award for life tools 2014 24 meffy award for mobile innovation 2013 25 appsters champion and best consumer app 2013 26 lovie award people s lovie for mobile innovation 2013 27 most effective mobile application b2c mobile marketing magazine 2010 28 community choice appcircus at droidcon 2010 29 ctia e tech award 2011 ctia 2011 30 jury award mobile premier awards 2011 winners of appcircus events 31 most innovative app at the global mobile awards mobile world congress 2012 32 the people s voice webby award for experimental and innovation 2012 33 best startup business guardian innovation awards 2012 34 coolest tech innovation europa awards 35 lovie award people s lovie for mobile innovation 2013 27 competitors edit swiftkey flow is similar in concept to chrooma swype fleksy swipeit slideit touchpal adaptxt shapewriter multiling o keyboard sony gesture input and android 4.2 gesture typing all of which also involve tracing a path over letters on a virtual keyboard . a little different approach yet still similar in concept is found in messagease and minuum . keyboards with optional tracing mode include htc touch input and ultra keyboard for android . privacy concerns edit as the swiftkey software replaces the original keyboard on the device any letters or words typed on it are intercepted processed and could be transmitted over the network thus privacy concerns arised . 36 see also edit list of most downloaded android applications references edit swiftkey site overview . alexa . alexa internet inc. retrieved 3 february 2016 . chris yackulic 6 september 2010 . the revolution of keyboard input coming very swift ly with swiftkey . androidheadlines.com . retrieved 4 october 2012 a b swiftkey our company . swiftkey.com . retrieved 20 september 2012 swiftkey s co founder sold his shares for a bicycle and missed out on a share of 250 million . qz.com retrieved 5 february 2016 swiftkey the clairvoyant keyboard raises 17.6 million forbes . retrieved 2013 26 09 swiftkey is joining microsoft . swiftkey blog . retrieved 3 february 2016 . butcher mike . microsoft is acquiring london s ai driven swiftkey for 250m . techcrunch . retrieved 3 february 2016 . microsoft taps into ai with swiftkey app acquisition . cnet . retrieved 3 february 2016 . swiftly purchased by microsoft a b c jerry hildenbrand 14 july 2010 . swiftkey beta keyboard now available on the android market . androidcentral.com . retrieved 20 september 2012 myriam joire 14 july 2011 . swiftkey x virtual keyboard launches for android tablets we go hands on video . engadget.com . retrieved 10 october 2012 stephen shankland 21 june 2012 . for better android typing swiftkey 3 . cnet.com . retrieved 4 october 2010 jaymar cabebe 20 february 2012 . the best android keyboard we ve reviewed . cnet.com . retrieved 20 february 2013 a b popular paid android keyboard swiftkey goes free for all cnet . retrieved 26 november 2014 swiftkey gets its predictive keyboard onto ios with a little help from evernote . the verge . 30 january 2014 . retrieved 2 february 2014 . swiftkey is coming to ios . 3 june 2014 . retrieved 5 june 2014 . natasha lomas . swiftkey shows off its ios 8 keyboard for the first time . techcrunch.com . retrieved 26 november 2014 a b james trew 29 february 2012 . swiftkey launches sdk phones and tablets get more predictable . engadget.com . retrieved 20 september 2012 david needle 21 june 2012 . new swiftkey 3 for android speeds touchscreen typing ; special healthcare version for ios as well also released . tabtimes.com . retrieved 10 october 2012 swiftkey healthcare best enterprise app 2012 . the appsters.com . retrieved 10 october 2012 viswav pradeep 7 april 2016 . you can now text like shakespeare with shakespeak app by microsoft s swiftkey . . mspoweruser . release press 7 april 2016 . shakespeak app lets shakespeare fans text like the bard . . baltimore post examiner . swiftkey shows off its ios 8 keyboard for the first time . techcrunch.com . retrieved 26 november 2014 meffy s 2014 finalists . meffys.com . retrieved 26 november 2014 meffys 2013 winners announced meffys.com 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