As Windows Phone lies dead in the water, Microsoft continues to tear off the best pieces and toss them across to Android and iOS. The latest chunk is the Windows Phone keyboard, which Microsoft is soon to launch as Word Flow for iPhone.
The Redmond-based company unveiled a beta signup form for the keyboard today, alongside a couple of new features. The iPhone version will allow you to choose your own background image, so you can type away on a field of daffodils or your significant other’s lovely face. There’s also a new one-handed mode, which rearranges the letters around your thumb in one corner of the screen.
The keyboard otherwise retains its best features from Windows Phone, including gesture typing, good auto-correct functionality and relatively speedy operation.
The Word Flow keyboard is one of several that Microsoft have released or teased recently. They released their Hub keyboard for iPhone last week, which includes buttons for attaching contact details and OneDrive documents, and the company also acquired Swiftkey earlier this year. That suggests that we’ll see quite a few keyboarding releases from Microsoft, potentially followed by a single upgraded version of Swiftkey with the best features from all of ’em.
If you’d like to sign up to test Word Flow for iPhone, you can do so at Microsoft’s Garage site. Invitations to test the keyboard are expected to flow out soon, and we’ll be ready with our first-hand impressions (if they’re particularly riveting). An Android release is expected to follow eventually, although nothing has yet been announced.
Let us know what you think of the keyboard in the comments.