Microsoft to Kill Off SwiftKey for iOS and Delist From App Store on October 5

[MacRumors]

Microsoft is ending support for its SwiftKey predictive keyboard for iPhone and the app will be delisted from the App Store next week, the company confirmed on Wednesday.

Responding to a request from ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley for more information after a lack of updates to the app for over a year, director of product management at SwiftKey, Chris Wolfe, gave the following statement:

"As of October 5, support for SwiftKey iOS will end and it will be delisted from the Apple App Store. Microsoft will continue support for SwiftKey Android as well as the underlying technology that powers the Windows touch keyboard. For those customers who have SwiftKey installed on iOS, it will continue to work until it is manually uninstalled or a user gets a new device. Please visit Support.SwiftKey.com for more information."

Microsoft did not give a reason for its decision to kill off the app, but Foley speculates that it may be related to Apple's policies about granting developers access to certain parts of its software, since if it chooses not to, "there's no easy or good way to make a product which needs integration to work."

Microsoft acquired SwiftKey in 2016. At the time, Microsoft said the keyboard was used on more than 300 million Android and iOS devices. The app uses a natural language processing algorithm that helps users type faster by predicting what they will type next. Microsoft plans to continue to support SwiftKey on Android for the foreseeable future.

Article Link: Microsoft to Kill Off SwiftKey for iOS and Delist From App Store on October 5

 

[russell_314]

Shocking that Microsoft would remove an app that benefits a competitor. This is just Microsoft being Microsoft, doing the things they’ve always done. I used SwiftKey long before Microsoft bought it, and I knew that was going to be bad.

 

[prwnr]

this is bad news.
especially for folks that are using more than one language, because Apple keyboard requires you to switch between them, not to use two at the same time
and this is bad for languages that dont have good suggestion support in Apple keyboard.

The only alternative now is gboard, which I always wanted to avoid, because I dont trust google at all.

 

[3401122]

this is bad news.
especially for folks that are using more than one language, because Apple keyboard requires you to switch between them, not to use two at the same time
and this is bad for languages that dont have good suggestion support in Apple keyboard.

The only alternative now is gboard, which I always wanted to avoid, because I dont trust google at all.

iOS Keyboard got updated long time ago with automatic language understanding! Just add all the languages you speak on the keyboard and it understands right away the language of suggestions.

 

[vercordio]

Also: This functionality is built into iOS now

 

[prwnr]

iOS Keyboard got updated long time ago with automatic language understanding! Just add all the languages you speak on the keyboard and it understands right away the language of suggestions.

I dont think that it works for me. It keeps suggesting corrections to currently active language, even if Im trying to write in the other. I had to switch between keyboard to get proper autocorrections.

 

[solq]

Oh no, that's what I use. This is terrible news, I loathe the default iOS keyboard.

 

[prwnr]

Also: This functionality is built into iOS now

maybe works for countries that Apple care about, but for my language (polish) with additional english enabled it doesnt really work well. when Im writing english words it wants to autocorrect them to polish words.

not to mention total lack of suggestions like english language has, for the polish language.

 

[malko]

For me this is a BIG dealbreaker. I just got myself an iPhone 14 Pro Max but it is likely to be my last iPhone after this announcement.

I'm typing in three languages and SwiftKey was the only "OK" keyboard for iPhone – not really "good" since it could only handle two languages on iOS due to artificial memory limitations imposed by Apple. But still good enough since it at least allows me to type in my main two languages effortlessly.

But without SwiftKey there is not even a "good enough" keyboard for me on iPhone. Sure, it will remain on my iPhone even though it doesn't get updates, but no chance I will buy a new iPhone in a year or two if there is no new keyboard in App Store to fill the empty space after SwiftKey...

PS. To anyone suggesting to use Apples built-in keyboard with multiple languages set up: No, that is not an option. Apples keyboard only supports English + 9 additional languages – none of which I use.

 

[BvizioN]

I use swiftkey all the time. This is not a good news.

 

[hacky]

iOS Keyboard got updated long time ago with automatic language understanding! Just add all the languages you speak on the keyboard and it understands right away the language of suggestions.

iOS keyboard still does not understand (does not have prediction for) many languages. Swift on the other hand does.

 

[3401122]

maybe works for countries that Apple care about, but for my language (polish) with additional english enabled it doesnt really work well. when Im writing english words it wants to autocorrect them to polish words.

not to mention total lack of suggestions like english language has, for the polish language.

I'm not from an eastern country, but I work there and I wouldn't recommend Apple to anybody from there.
Too many limitations, and some languages don't even have native system language, you have to use english.
I guess that's also why Android is just so popular (and the same is for macOS).

 

[maryland]

iOS Keyboard got updated long time ago with automatic language understanding! Just add all the languages you speak on the keyboard and it understands right away the language of suggestions.

This only works with a small number of languages. Apple calls it Multilingual Typing and the supported languages are listed here:

iOS and iPadOS - Feature Availability

iOS and iPadOS have so many amazing features. Find out which ones are available on iPhone and iPad in your country or region.

www.apple.com

 

[adib]

Shocking that Microsoft would remove an app that benefits a competitor. This is just Microsoft being Microsoft, doing the things they’ve always done. I used SwiftKey long before Microsoft bought it, and I knew that was going to be bad.

If it is free, sure it "benefits a competitor". But if paid, say part of Microsoft 365, then it would be a good value add for the suite.

 

[burnzi]

Why don't they publish it as open source?

 

[contacos]

This only works with a small number of languages. Apple calls it Multilingual Typing and the supported languages are listed here:

iOS and iPadOS - Feature Availability

iOS and iPadOS have so many amazing features. Find out which ones are available on iPhone and iPad in your country or region.

www.apple.com

I will never understand why they have not rolled this out to Siri as well. The phone should be smart enough that if I am communicating with person X via text in English, that I would like to have their responses also read out in English and if I am typing with contact B always in German, it should read out those texts in German. Right now Siri is useless and everything that isn’t German (in my case) just becomes gibberish nonsense

 

[Zeke92]

I never used SwiftKey but Apple seriously needs to improve its predictive typing and slide to type. And it’s multi language keyboard functionality. It really hasn’t gotten better in years

 

[bLackjackj]

Why don't they publish it as open source?

Absolutely agree! Why bother buying it then if you were going to drop iOS support! I've been using it for years. Could Microsoft not advise us,..their agents have been telling everyone it is under maintenance as logins were failing. Very upset at the last minute notice and only to a reporter!

Just sell it to another company if you want to dump all iOS users!

 

[Unami]

I will never understand why they have not rolled this out to Siri as well. The phone should be smart enough that if I am communicating with person X via text in English, that I would like to have their responses also read out in English and if I am typing with contact B always in German, it should read out those texts in German. Right now Siri is useless and everything that isn’t German (in my case) just becomes gibberish nonsense

yes, that sucks bigtime to have to set the language manually everytime when using siri for dictation.

 

[Shirasaki]

For me this is a BIG dealbreaker. I just got myself an iPhone 14 Pro Max but it is likely to be my last iPhone after this announcement.

I'm typing in three languages and SwiftKey was the only "OK" keyboard for iPhone – not really "good" since it could only handle two languages on iOS due to artificial memory limitations imposed by Apple. But still good enough since it at least allows me to type in my main two languages effortlessly.

But without SwiftKey there is not even a "good enough" keyboard for me on iPhone. Sure, it will remain on my iPhone even though it doesn't get updates, but no chance I will buy a new iPhone in a year or two if there is no new keyboard in App Store to fill the empty space after SwiftKey...

PS. To anyone suggesting to use Apples built-in keyboard with multiple languages set up: No, that is not an option. Apples keyboard only supports English + 9 additional languages – none of which I use.

Now it's time to download the IPA and iTunes 12.6.5.3 and start saving IPA files so you could use swiftkey longer than Microsoft would want you to do. I have one saved locally so I can still use it if I want to.

To anyone else, download the app IPA file now so you could use the app for a few more years. Also, local IPA is the only way to counter dev/Apple pulling apps. I fear Apple will also remove the app in your purchase history so you can no longer redownload it directly. (Vidget was pulled and I can only use it by installing it using iMazing)

 

[cyanite]

iOS Keyboard got updated long time ago with automatic language understanding! Just add all the languages you speak on the keyboard and it understands right away the language of suggestions.

It only works for a few languages, actually.

Also: This functionality is built into iOS now

Swiping yes, multi-language not really.

 

[Ledgem]

Also: This functionality is built into iOS now

People are shouting this one down over multilingual issues, and while that's valid, English users should care because of another reason: iPads. If you want swipe-style functionality on an iPad, you're not going to get it on the full-sized iPad keyboard. You need to shrink it down to the iPhone-sized, minimized or split keyboard to be able to swipe. That's a pain. Swiftkey allowed you to have the full-sized keyboard and retain swiping functionality.

This is horrible news. Once you get used to swipe-style keyboards, tapping letters feels archaic. It's similar in feel to the difference between typing with an on-screen keyboard and tapping out letters by repeatedly having to press certain numbers with old-style "dumb" phones.

 

[danielbahl]

I hope iOS 16.2 will come to the rescue. One can dream, right?

In Denmark (and I'm sure many other countries around the globe) we are still stuck with a built-in 1st gen. iOS keyboard. No Swipe. No Predictions. No Multi-language. Just plain ol' typing one character at a time.

That's why SwiftKey was an awesome app. Now the only alternative is G Board from Google, and while it's great too, it sucks that Apple now almost forces me to deliver my data to Google to have a decent mobile keyboard. Please Team Apple—put some focus on your built-in Keyboard in Denmark (and other countries as well) so it at least works, as good as the built-in US keyboard has been working for almost 10 years.

 

[solq]

Now the only alternative is G Board from Google, and while it's great too, it sucks that Apple now almost forces me to deliver my data to Google to have a decent mobile keyboard.

Not sure what you're talking about. Just don't use search and voice input on Gboard. What you type isn't sent to Google.

 

[spytech]

This is really bad news. Kind of saw it coming with the lack of updates and somewhat called it when there was no update before iOS 16. Let's see how long I can go with it before breaking...