What is SwiftKey keyboard and what are its key features?

The Microsoft SwiftKey keyboard is an advanced, third-party keyboard available for iOS and Android devices. While it may seem like just another snazzy keyboard on the surface, Microsoft’s trillions have been at work here, developing what is arguably one of the most advanced keyboards available today. Here are some of the features that help it stand out.

It learns as you type

SwiftKey features one of the best predictive text input engines available today. Typing is usually fast, and misspelling free, but more importantly, it’s also more personal. This is because the keyboard learns your writing style as you type and gets better at predicting your next words. 

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You can also customise the keyboard’s toolbar to include GIFs, stickers, and functions like clipboard and translator that you use more often. An AI-powered editor is already included with the keyboard. Its function is to check for grammar and other errors, and to give tips to help improve your writing.

One of our favourite features is the swipe to type feature. This isn’t new and you’ll find it on a lot of keyboards, including the default ones that come with your smartphones, but swiping just feels more intuitive on SwiftKey owing to the previously mentioned learning features.

It’s an AI keyboard

Given Microsoft’s heavy investment in the company that made ChatGPT, it should come as no surprise that SwiftKey features Microsoft CoPilot – Microsoft’s AI engine – and GPT-4 Turbo. You will now be able to send queries to one of the most powerful AI engines on the planet from the comfort of your keyboard. 

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Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, there’s a Dall-E 3 powered image generator – think ChatGPT but for images – integrated into the emoji tab. You can literally have the keyboard, yes, your smartphone’s keyboard, generate emojis and other images for you on the fly. 

There’s even an AI powered camera that lets you take images from within any app, and then convert it into a GIF or add text effects and graphics. If you have a tonne of photos of yourself, you can feed them to Swiftkey to help it create a whole set of personalised emojis just for you.

Microsoft services integration

Among the more interesting features of SwiftKey is its ability to integrate deeply with various Microsoft services. For example, there’s a Cloud Clipboard feature that syncs copied information with your Microsoft account. This allows  you to seamlessly transfer copied data between devices that are signed into the same account.

In the same vein, there’s a Task Capture feature that saves tasks from your keyboard into Microsoft To Do, a To-Do list application from Microsoft that’s available on iOS and Android as well. Synced tasks can be easily managed in the app.

SwiftKey isn’t just a keyboard, it’s an all-in-one app that brings AI smarts to your fingertips, and to any app with a text box. It’s a smart, snazzy keyboard – snazzy because the keyboard theme is fully customisable – with AI smarts, and the best part being it’s completely free and available right now on both iOS and Android platforms.