Ask HN: Why is no one competing with Apple / Googles keyboard? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why is no one competing with Apple / Googles keyboard?

6 pointsAlifatisk18 comments

Microsft dropped support for Swiftkey, is there anything left?

Microsoft seems to be actively developing Swiftkey (not dropping support):

> Today, we are announcing... updates to SwiftKey that put the Bing AI experience one touch away across any iOS or Android mobile experience that supports a third-party keyboard.

https://blogs.bing.com/search/april-2023/Easily-access-the-n...

Because they're good enough. Also they're potential keyloggers and have access to all your passwords, conversations, and searches. You already trust the OS with those; much harder for some random third party startup to do.

Why should anyone "compete" on mobile keyboards?

I used to have a couple third-party ones installed on my iPhone (Grammarly is one whose name I can remember)

Found myself having to constantly go back to the factory keyboard so I could actually type (keytap-to-screen lag on some was on the order of a second or more)

And some of those keyboards had ads

Or exported copies of what I was typing off my phone

No thank you

Try searching in the Play store. There are tons of keyboard apps, one of which is SwiftKey. My Samsung phone didn't come with Google's keyboard and I've never felt the need to install it.

Apples.keyboard.is.god.enough. But I'm hardly we'd to it. If there we're an alternative to consider, perhaps Swift key from Microsoft?

I use https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=rkr.simplekeyb...

It doesn't have a lot of features, but it continues to work just as well as it did when I installed it. Which is more than I can say for Google's keyboard.

I couldn't find any recent news on Microsoft dropping support for SwiftKey

Yes, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_SwiftKey says November 2022 reversed its decision and continued to support it on iOS.

And no new keyboard version for iOS has been announced to date.

I believe you're incorrect

Go to https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/swiftkey

Then click the App Store link

https://apps.apple.com/app/swiftkey-keyboard/id911813648

Version History there shows four released this year (the most recent being two days ago):

3.0.1 Apr 12, 2023

- Introducing the new Bing in SwiftKey preview experience. Bing in SwiftKey includes search, chat, and tone change, providing seamless access to some of the most advanced AI-powered tools available. If you want to try it yourself, sign up for the Bing preview waitlist by signing into SwiftKey or at https://www.bing.com/new

- Bug fixes and stability improvements

3.0.0 Apr 8, 2023

Bug fixes and performance improvements

2.9.8 Feb 12, 2023

Bug fixes and performance improvements

2.9.7 Feb 6, 2023

- Emoji update: Tap emoji icon for latest iOS emoji.

- New settings entry: Long press emoji icon for keyboard settings.

- Improved autocorrection: Tap backspace to undo autocorrection.

- Bug fixes and performance improvements.

Transparency in updates is a big failure in the App Store redesign from a couple years ago. Now the updates are buried multiple taps in and I doubt most average users even know where to go to find them which leads to people thinking their apps aren't being updated.

multiple taps?

If an app is updated, it pops in the apps pending updates list

I have mine set to autoinstall, but can force them to install manually, too

Fair, it is one tap. However, it's in under your profile picture instead of having its own tab. I don't thing your profile is the most intuitive place to look for updates though. I just loaded my App Store app and went to check my updates, despite auto-update being enabled, I currently have 6 apps that need to be updated, the oldest of which being updated 4 days ago, but still sitting in pending updates[1].

[1]https://imgur.com/a/lGH8TtT

Oh jolly! Two updates have new features!

Thanks!

Can't tell if you're being sarcastic .. but since app devs have no requirement to list anything past a minimum number of characters ...there's no guarantee you actually find out anything other than "an update is ready" :)

Just started using it again. And I'm happy. This is one of the things I missed dearly before moving from Android late last year.

There was one created by IIT in Mumbai, India. It is/was a multilingual keypad: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=iit.android.sw...

Why? Apple fans won't even admit the iOS experience is bad...

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