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TechFortune 500

Microsoft Just Killed This App for Apple’s iPhone and iPad

By
Jonathan Vanian
Jonathan Vanian
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By
Jonathan Vanian
Jonathan Vanian
Down Arrow Button Icon
July 31, 2017, 5:35 PM ET
Photograph by Getty Images

There’s now one less digital keyboard for Apple iPhone and iPad users to choose from for typing text messages and emails.

Microsoft (MSFT) is no longer updating its Word Flow digital keyboard for iOS-powered mobile devices, according to Microsoft.

The app, which debuted in April, 2016, was created by Microsoft’s Garage research team to make it easier to enter text on iPhones and iPads, including a mode that let people write messages using only one hand. The team included auto-correct and auto-complete features that it felt were better than Apple’s own digital keyboard.

“The Word Flow experiment is now complete!” Microsoft said in an updated product description for Word Flow on Monday that was spotted by tech news site WindowsCentral.

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Microsoft is now urging people who visit the Word Flow product page to instead download its SwiftKey digital keyboard for iOS devices. The app is available through Apple’s (AAPL) online app store.

Microsoft is abandoning its Word Flow app after it bought the company behind the SwiftKey in February 2016 for an undisclosed price. At the time, The Financial Timesreported that Microsoft paid $250 million for the London-based startup.

Microsoft said it would hire all of SwiftKey’s employees and that it would incorporate SwiftKey’s technology that can predict what people want to type into its other products so as to speed up the the time it takes to write messages.

It’s unclear how many people had downloaded the Word Flow iOS app, but it’s likely to have been a small number compared to SwiftKey. SwiftKey claims that its app has been downloaded to 300 million mobile devices, including both iOS and Android devices, according to the product’s website.

SwitfKey’s Android app debuted in 2010, followed by release of the iOS app in 2014.

About the Author
By Jonathan Vanian
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Jonathan Vanian is a former Fortune reporter. He covered business technology, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, data privacy, and other topics.

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