Microsoft to Kill Off SwiftKey for iOS and Delist From App Store on October 5
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.
Related Stories
Saturday November 19, 2022 12:11 am PST by
Sami FathiMicrosoft's popular third-party keyboard for iOS, SwiftKey, is back on the App Store just weeks after the company announced it would be shutting down the app and delisting it from the platform.
In September, Microsoft said SwiftKey for iOS was being shut down and removed from the App Store for no clear reason. SwiftKey has been a popular alternative for iPhone users to Apple's default iOS...
Microsoft today announced that iCloud Photos integration in the Photos app on Windows 11 is beginning to roll out today with an update to the app on the Microsoft Store. Microsoft expects the update to be available to all Windows 11 customers by end of the month.
iCloud Photos integration allows iPhone users to access all of their photos in the Photos app on Windows 11 devices. In a blog...
Microsoft Office will soon officially be renamed "Microsoft 365," in the biggest rebranding of the company's office productivity software in more than 30 years (via The Verge).
You may have heard of Microsoft 365 already – that's because Microsoft renamed Office 365 subscriptions to Microsoft 365 two years ago. But in the coming months, Office.com, the Office mobile app, and the Office ...
Microsoft today announced that dedicated Apple Music and Apple TV apps will be available on Windows devices next year. The company also announced that iCloud Photos integration is coming to the Photos app on Windows 11 devices later this year.
The standalone Apple Music and Apple TV apps will provide a much improved experience for Windows users who use these services. Currently, Windows...
In news that could weigh heavily on the future success of Apple TV, Microsoft has confirmed it is working to bring an affordable streaming device to market that would allow users to play Xbox games without the need for a full-blown console.
It has been suggested for years that Microsoft wants to make gaming accessible to more people by cutting out the need to invest in a pricey console. The...
iOS 16 adds native support for the Dvorak keyboard layout on the iPhone, providing users with an alternative to the standard QWERTY layout. The newly added option was noted by @aaronp613 and others back in July, but the feature stayed largely under the radar until it was highlighted this week by Ars Technica and The Verge.
Dvorak was designed to make two-handed typing faster and more...
Wednesday November 30, 2022 12:20 pm PST by
Juli CloverFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek today spoke out against Apple's App Store policies, joining Twitter CEO Elon Musk, who earlier this week said that Apple was making moderation demands and had threatened to withhold Twitter from the App Store.
At The New York Times DealBook Summit, Zuckerberg said that only Apple attempts to limit the apps that are in the App Store, and...
Microsoft today announced the debut of a native Microsoft Teams app that's been optimized for Apple silicon Macs, with the app coming after several months of development.
Microsoft Teams is a business communication platform that's similar to Slack, offering text-based chat, video conferencing, file storage, app integration, and more. The native version of the app will bring a "significant...
Popular Stories
An unnamed 27-year-old man who purchased 300 iPhones from Apple Fifth Avenue on Monday morning was robbed shortly after leaving the store, according to 1010Wins Radio in New York.
He was carrying 300 iPhone 13s in three bags and walking to his car at 1:45 a.m. when another car pulled up next to him. Two men jumped out and demanded that he hand over the bags. Not wanting to hand over 300...
Wednesday November 30, 2022 10:09 am PST by
Juli CloverApple today released iOS 16.1.2, another minor bug fix update that comes one week after the release of iOS 16.1.1 and three weeks after the launch of iOS 16.1, an update that added support for iCloud Shared Photo Library, Matter, Live Activities, and more.
The iOS 16.1.2 update can be downloaded on eligible iPhones over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update.
According...
Apple today announced its 2022 App Store Award winners, highlighting the 16 best apps and games selected by Apple's global App Store editorial team.
The top apps were chosen by Apple for their quality, innovative technology, creative design, positive cultural impact, and ability to deliver "exceptional experiences." Apple CEO Tim Cook said:
This year's App Store Award winners reimagined...
Wednesday November 30, 2022 2:39 am PST by
Sami FathiGeekbench scores allegedly for the upcoming "M2 Max" chip have surfaced online, offering a closer look at the performance levels and specific details of the forthcoming Apple silicon processor.
The Geekbench results, first spotted on Twitter, are for a Mac configuration of with the M2 Max chip, a 12-core CPU, and 96GB of memory. The Mac listed has an identifier "Mac14,6," which could be...
Anker's popular Eufy-branded security cameras appear to be sending some data to the cloud, even when cloud storage is disabled and local only storage settings are turned on. The information comes from security consultant Paul Moore, who last week published a video outlining the issue.
According to Moore, he purchased a Eufy Doorbell Dual, which was meant to be a device that stored video...
Wednesday November 30, 2022 12:43 pm PST by
Juli CloverTwitter CEO Elon Musk today met with Apple CEO Tim Cook at the Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California, according to a tweet shared by Musk this afternoon.
Musk thanked Cook for taking him around Apple's headquarters, with no mention of what the two might have discussed. The meeting comes just after Musk on Monday claimed that Apple has "mostly stopped" offering ads on Twitter, and that...
Elon Musk has pledged to offer an "alternative phone" if Apple and Google remove Twitter from their app stores, adding to long-standing rumors about an iPhone rival from Tesla.
Modified iPhone 11 Pro in the style of the Tesla Cybertruck, by Caviar. Musk's remark came after being asked about the potential scenario of Twitter being removed from app stores, which could conceivably happen if the...
The Black Friday and Cyber Monday holiday shopping rush is drawing to a close, but there are still some good deals to be had out there. For Apple products, many of the deals you've seen since last week are still available, though some have expired. So for anyone who missed out on Black Friday deals, there's still an opportunity to get some of the year's best prices on many Apple devices.
Note: ...
Apple today rolled out an updated Apple Music Replay experience for 2022, showcasing a new "highlight reel" feature.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The overhauled experience, which started to be noticed by Apple Music subcribers on Twitter earlier today, puts the new highlight reel feature at the forefront of the Replay webpage, which users are encouraged to...
Apple's upcoming iPhone 15 models will be equipped with Sony's newest "state of the art" image sensors, according to a report from Nikkei.
Compared to standard sensors, Sony's image sensor doubles the saturation signal in each pixel, allowing it to capture more light to cut down on underexposure and overexposure. Nikkei says that it is able to better photograph a person's face even with...
Top Rated Comments
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.
not to mention total lack of suggestions like english language has, for the polish language.
https://www.apple.com/ios/feature-availability/#quicktype-keyboard-multilingual-typing