TextExpander has posted details about its upcoming “touch 3” update, that will add a TextExpander keyboard within iOS 8 that will allow users to expand snippets of text in any app on the iPhone or iPad. This marks yet another app developer taking advantage of Apple’s new third-party keyboard API made available in iOS 8. Prior to the big update, only apps which implemented the TextExpander touch SDK could expand snippets directly.
TextExpander posted a video of the snippet keyboard in action on Monday, highlighting users will simply be able to type in a series of letters for a full response. For example: “sig” could yield a full email signature of “Jake @ iDownloadBlog”, depending on what settings you’ve made within the TextExpander app.
“This week, we will begin a public beta of TextExpander with the custom keyboard,” the TextExpander team wrote on its blog. The keyboard, which will also include full VoiceOver accessibility support, can be beta tested by following the TextExpander account on Twitter.
TextExpander, and other similar apps like QuickBoard, highlight exactly why it was a smart move for Apple to open third-party keyboard support within iOS 8 – a feature Android has had since its inception. We’ve been familiar with swipeable keyboards for sometime, like TouchPal and Swype, but they were only available through means of jailbreaking, not the broader iTunes App Store.
If you haven’t picked up on it yet, we’re pretty big fans of TextExpander here at iDownloadBlog.