Microsoft acquires smart keyboard SwiftKey

Update: Microsoft and SwiftKey have confirmed the acquisition on February 3.

In a blog post, Microsoft’s executive vice president of technology and research Harry Shum said:

We’ll continue to develop SwiftKey’s market-leading keyboard apps for Android and iOS as well as explore scenarios for the integration of the core technology across the breadth of our product and services portfolio. Moreover, SwiftKey’s predictive technology aligns with Microsoft’s investments and ambition to develop intelligent systems that can work more on the user’s behalf and under their control.

In the coming months, we’ll have more to share about how we’ll integrate SwiftKey technology with our Guinness World Record Word Flow technology for Windows.

Our original report follows:

A new report from Financial Times indicates Microsoft is interested in purchasing SwiftKey for around $250 million.

The reason for the deal is apparently SwiftKey’s Artificial Intelligence software, which makes SwiftKey so good at predictive text.

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This is also interesting because Microsoft has a new iPhone keyboard in the works, where it may put SwiftKey’s technology to work.

Of course, there’s nothing official to this, but we’ve reached out to both Microsoft and SwiftKey. We’ll update this post if we hear back.

➤ Microsoft steps up AI push with Swiftkey deal [Financial Times]