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

[Wildkraut]

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 is crap at multi language, just like Siri that can't understand multi language.

 

[Xand&Roby]

Siri (multilingual support) is here from iPhone 4S: 2011.
11 yrs later most of its services in English aren’t disposable yet in other countries. “We can’t innovate anymore my ass! (2013?)” 🤦🏽
We got Dinamic Gimmick.

 

[timber]

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.

Kind of funny these news show just after Dark Sky shutdown on iOS.

You know, the app that was removed from the Play Store almost immediately after Apple bought it in 2020.

 

[Rock_Artist]

Indeed that's a shame. anyone using multiple languages which aren't the major ones is being hurt from this.

Apple's international support is sometimes limiting. so with Apple's keyboard I don't have auto-suggestions which I use ALL the time.

Only Gboard and few tiny actors. that's what's left.

 

[dumastudetto]

Nobody needs SwiftKey anymore.

 

[bLackjackj]

Nobody needs SwiftKey anymore.

What a stupid comment. I don't use it for mult language support, I use it as a fully customized keyboard. It's far better than the stock iOS keyboard, which is why it exists and has so many users. 🙄🤦‍♂️

 

[solq]

I just tried gboard again after a really long break. The good news, it doesn't suck. It supports 3 languages.

What it doesn't seem to have is a separate number row, a feature I personally used with SwiftKey.

Instead, it has a prominent and un-defeatable Google search icon which I don't need.

Still infinitely better than the default thing Apple puts on iOS, which has got to be, easily, the worst keyboard on a mobile phone today.

 

[genovelle]

I wonder what data they were accessing to make this work that Apple cut off. Or what didn’t they want you knowing they were accessing. I can assure you that if it was something that could make Apple look bad, Microsoft would be very vocal about it. There’s no way they would allow this to go away with a whimper. It could be a competitive move to attract more people to their devices or allow it to only work in their profitable services.

 

[bLackjackj]

What it doesn't seem to have is a separate number row, a feature I personally used with SwiftKey.

Exactly, I just checked as well and no theme supports a seperate number row,..which is highly annoying. Also auto correction doesn't appear to work, eventhough it's turned on.

 

[Radeon85]

There goes my favourite keyboard that I've been using for years. Still prefer over the default one as I find it does a much better job at predicting words.

 

[solq]

Exactly, I just checked as well and no theme supports a seperate number row,..which is highly annoying. Also auto correction doesn't appear to work, eventhough it's turned on.

I don't use autocorrection but another missing feature is SwiftKey's ability to turn the keyboard into a track pad by long-pressing the space bar, so you can position the cursor very precisely.

Gboard looks like it has something implemented on spacebar long press (the keys disappear) but it doesn't work, it's showing me nonsense suggestions instead of moving the cursor.

 

[russell_314]

Kind of funny these news show just after Dark Sky shutdown on iOS.

You know, the app that was removed from the Play Store almost immediately after Apple bought it in 2020.

The big difference is Apple is shutting down Dark Sky because it wants to use the technology in their weather app. If Microsoft bought it to put it on their Windows phone, then yes I can see pulling it from the App Store because they would want that keyboard exclusive for their phone, but where exactly is Windows phone right now? Oh yeah, still sleeping and dreaming about the iPhone’s funeral 😂

Also, they’re not pulling it from the android store from my understanding. Apple completely removed Dark Sky even from its own App Store. I’m not happy to shut that up down because I use it but I understand the motivation. It’s not to spite their competition.

 

[anthogag]

I don’t use Swiftkey and Microsoft still sucks.

 

[russell_314]

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.

True, but I think Microsoft is a bit shortsighted when it comes to the situation. They are unhappy with what’s going on with Apple Silicon so they’ve been an all out war against Apple or at least a marketing war. They could’ve went in partnership with them instead of being in bed with Intel, but they sign the ARM exclusivity contract with QUALCOMM so they can’t even do that.

 

[FNi]

Is there something going on with third party keyboards? Google barely updates GBoard for iOS anymore and its gotten very buggy. Are they just too much of a hassle to maintain?

 

[danniehansen]

Im from Denmark and use Swiftkey all the time.

 

[okeribok]

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)

Sounds good, but how does that work? Don't you need ios 13 or even 12 for that to work? And macos 10.14 or something? Would like to know more as I tried pretty hard, but got nowhere.

On topic: it's because apple is becoming more and more draconian to developers that are looking to do more than they can do in a Web app.

 

[klasma]

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.

It works poorly even for languages that support prediction. Over time it also pollutes the predictions for language X with words for language Y.

 

[okeribok]

Kind of funny these news show just after Dark Sky shutdown on iOS.

You know, the app that was removed from the Play Store almost immediately after Apple bought it in 2020.

How about emagic logic and many others that apple bought and immediately shut down non-apple support for. At least SwiftKey stuck around for a couple of years.

 

[slammer0]

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.

Same in Poland. 38 million people country. I thought they will add more languages in a year or two. Nope. I don't even wish for Siri (esp. on HomePod) but feakin keyboard?! They talk about inclusivity and all but in reality it is just about US minorities.

 

[klasma]

I wonder what data they were accessing to make this work that Apple cut off. Or what didn’t they want you knowing they were accessing. I can assure you that if it was something that could make Apple look bad, Microsoft would be very vocal about it. There’s no way they would allow this to go away with a whimper. It could be a competitive move to attract more people to their devices or allow it to only work in their profitable services.

It might just be that it gained less traction than they were hoping for, so they decided it’s not worth it anymore.

 

[PsykX]

I've tried several custom keyboards in the past and I'm sorry to say, but nothing beats the built-in iOS keyboard.

 

[addamas]

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.

Offline translate finally came to Polish language and is awesome in my opinion both in Safari or Translate App.
So there are finally chances for keyboard in near future or even Siri…

Anyways Apple shame on you for not updating keyboard for a really long time. Swipe is not necessary at first, just give damn suggestions.

 

[saudor]

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)

the IPA will stop working if they change the signing signature like they did in 14.5 but there’s still a way to download it with the updated signature even if it’s removed from your purchased history as long as you have the expired IPA and imazing.

EDIT: for those who want a more visual approach on how to save the Swiftkey IPA file, I made a quick tutorial video. Hope it helps! :

 

[star-affinity]

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

Thanks for the link to that. Good to see there is some effort behind this from Apple's side, but of course the lack of languages is a problem. Google/Android is definitely much better when it comes to this. Come on Apple!