Microsoft shuts down one-handed iPhone keyboard in favor of SwiftKey

Microsoft is shutting down its one-handed keyboard for iPhone and iPod touch, called WordFlow, fifteen months after the app made its debut on App Store.

According to a message on the Microsoft Garage website, WordFlow was from the onset an experiment and they’re now shutting it down and pointing users to SwiftKey instead:

The Word Flow experiment is now complete. We encourage you to download the SwiftKey Keyboard from the App Store. The SwiftKey product team is frequently building and evaluating new features for SwiftKey and shipping updates.

Word Flow enabled a blazing fast keyboard with gesture-based typing that came with search and Arc mode with fanned key layout for ergonomic one-handed typing. Other supports features included word suggestions, auto-corrections, emoji, autofill for any names in Contacts and more.

Here’s our video review of the Word Flow app:

Subscribe to iDownloadBlog on YouTube

The Windows giant acquired the SwiftKey app and team in February of last year for a reported $250 million.

TUTORIAL: How to use iOS 11’s one-handed iPhone keyboard mode

When iOS 11 launches for public consumption this fall, larger-screened iPhone users will be able to take advantage of a brand new one-handed keyboard mode which shrinks the keys to either side of the screen so that the entire keyboard matches the size of that on a four-inch iPhone.