Fleksy Keyboard Goes Permanently Free, Adds Improved GIF and Sticker Browsing

[MacRumors]

Third-party keyboard developer Fleksy today announced its popular keyboard app on iOS and Android will be going free on a permanent basis, increasing the potential customer base for full basic keyboard functionality while continuing to offer additional premium content such as themes and extension slots for in-app purchase. Fleksy has generally sold for $0.99 in the App Store, although it has occasionally been free for short periods of time.

By making the keyboard available for free, Fleksy is able to serve a much larger and more diverse set of users. With this increased user base, Fleksy will be focused on delivering new and exciting product improvements across all languages.

"We want every smartphone user to have the opportunity to experience fast, expressive, and intuitive typing," said Fleksy's Co-Founder and CEO, Kosta Eleftheriou. "We believe the best way to do this is to make the app free for everyone."

To thank users who previously paid for the app, Fleksy will be offering a set of free themes and extension slots that typically cost $8.

In addition to the shift to a freemium model, Fleksy is also rolling out improvements to GIFs and stickers, building on a feature introduced in April. With the new "Highlights" view, users will be able to easily access relevant GIFs and stickers all in one place by searching and tapping on auto-suggested hashtag topics.

Like many third-party keyboards, Fleksy requires users grant "full access" to the keyboard, a capability that makes some users wary as Apple warns it allows keyboards to log keystrokes and send them back to remote servers. In a support document, Fleksy outlines the keyboard features such as language packs and personalization (as well as GIFs and stickers) that require full access to function, and the company outlines its privacy promises regarding the data it can collect and how it protects that data.

Fleksy Keyboard goes free on the App Store today. [Direct Link]

Article Link: Fleksy Keyboard Goes Permanently Free, Adds Improved GIF and Sticker Browsing

 

[Dilster3k]

Shouldn't have cost money in the first place...

 

[Zxxv]

By making the keyboard available for free, Fleksy is able to serve a much larger and more diverse set of users. With this increased user base, Fleksy will be focused on delivering new and exciting product improvements across all languages.

running it through google decipher

No ones buying our app.

“We want every smartphone user to have the opportunity to experience fast, expressive, and intuitive typing,” said Fleksy’s Co-Founder and CEO, Kosta Eleftheriou. “We believe the best way to do this is to make the app free for everyone.”

running it through google decipher

we got paid a **** ton of money from you know who to give them access to you know what


disclaimer : this is meant as humour

 

[az431]

Still too expensive. None of these third party keyboards are stable and reliable enough to replace the stock one as an everyday keyboard. There is always some app or circumstance where they don't work properly or at all

 

[tombaldwin]

Still too expensive. None of these third party keyboards are stable and reliable enough to replace the stock one as an everyday keyboard. There is always some app or circumstance where they don't work properly or at all

Stability of 3rd party keyboards has gotten a lot better with recent iOS updates.

Tom

 

[miknos]

I'm very happy with Swype. It could improve but I find it better than stock keyboard. And I don't need to give full access to work.

Asking the user to trust certain company; in this case a small one, is simply too much. Apple at least has much to lose if they get caught giving keylog to certain agencies.

With the Hacking Team incident hack, you realize iOS (without jailbreak) is quite secure.

I would give Fleksy a try if I didn't need to give full access to them.

 

[Benjamin Frost]

Does anyone know how to post a GIF here on an iPhone or iPad?

 

[KALLT]

Stability of 3rd party keyboards has gotten a lot better with recent iOS updates.

But still not good enough.

 

[Zxxv]

Does anyone know how to post a GIF here on an iPhone or iPad?

 

[Benjamin Frost]

You managed to? Can you tell me how?

 

[dwd3885]

Still too expensive. None of these third party keyboards are stable and reliable enough to replace the stock one as an everyday keyboard. There is always some app or circumstance where they don't work properly or at all

yep. blame apple. they really don't want these third-party keyboards to work

 

[tombaldwin]

But still not good enough.

I can't speak as a Flesky user but in general we're finding stability is now absolutely fine for daily use.

The full-access thing is a pain -- keyboards have to ask for the same level of permissions to provide corrections based on contacts as they would to echo everything typed over the internet...

 

[Zxxv]

You managed to? Can you tell me how?

Post it in image quotes. Hit the image link above and it'll pop open a box. Put your link in that.

 

[RadioGaGa1984]

Yay! Who cares?

 

[Oblivious.Robot]

Needs full access

I'm highly sceptical about doing that.

 

[Benjamin Frost]

Post it in image quotes. Hit the image link above and it'll pop open a box. Put your link in that.

Doesn't seem to work for me. I pasted it in, and it plays in my edit window, but when I post reply, it just appears as a crossed out box, as you can see. Could you reply to this post and see if the gif plays when you ooen it?

 

[AbSoluTc]

Awesome! Now my keyboard can look like a MySpace profile.

 

[GoodWheaties]

I've had Fleksy for a couple months now and I actually really like it, except I wish it had access to Siri for voice dictation. But for texting I think it is way better than Swype (at least for the little bit I tried to use Swype). I like that I can make it smaller so it doesn't cover so much screen (using iP5). Slightly annoying that I could have got it for free now but hey.... :/

 

[alexgowers]

Still getting crashes all the time and not even appearing, needing to kill app or restart. I'm using swype keyboard but all 3rd party keyboards are crashing. apple needs to sort the API out and make it work. Apple is loosing the plot on their software at the moment, it's like they miss massive huge gaping bugs on every bit of code they do these days. past two years has been bug-o-gedon.

 

[Zxxv]

Doesn't seem to work for me. I pasted it in, and it plays in my edit window, but when I post reply, it just appears as a crossed out box, as you can see. Could you reply to this post and see if the gif plays when you ooen it?

It plays when I reply yes. It doesn't when I copy pasteit. The one bellow I asked for the desktop version so I could get the right url. It's the url you're using that is the problem as I also ran into the same issue.

 

[mrpbennett]

Still too expensive. None of these third party keyboards are stable and reliable enough to replace the stock one as an everyday keyboard. There is always some app or circumstance where they don't work properly or at all

I agree, I have been switching between SwiftKey, Flesky and the standard Apple one for weeks now. They're all great but the 3rd party ones still hold some bugs, especially when it comes to loading up the keyboard.

If apple were to enable an option to have a dark keyboard instead of a white one. Id be all over the standard one. I mean thats all i really want is a dark keyboard! IMO it looks nicer too