SwiftKey is often touted as one of the better third-party keyboards on Android and iOS, but if a new report is accurate, it’ll soon be bought by a company whose mobile platform it’s not on.
Microsoft is reportedly buying SwiftKey for around $250 million. According to sources speaking to the Financial Times, the deal will be officially announced later this week. Unsurprisingly, neither company has commented on this report.
Microsoft has been on a productivity app buying spree lately, snapping up apps like email app Accompli and calendar app Sunrise. Now it’s rumored that Microsoft has its sights set on SwiftKey. Exactly what will happen with SwiftKey following a Microsoft acquisition remains to be seen, because Microsoft kept Accompli around and renamed it Outlook but then said it would take Sunrise features and build them into Outlook. Considering how popular SwiftKey is, though, it’d be crazy for Microsoft to kill it off. One of the sources of this report mentions that there’s a big interest in artificial intelligence lately, so perhaps Microsoft will use SwiftKey’s AI talent to improve its own services.
Do you use SwiftKey?