SwiftKey is my Android keyboard, hands down. When Alex told me we had a chance to get Joe Braidwood on the Android Headlines Show, I got excited. Then Alex told me we were going to have Joe Braidwood on the show two days after SwiftKey got a major update and went free on the Play Store, I started doing cartwheels. This was a really exciting moment for us and for me in particular.
If you’re not familiar with SwiftKey, go download the keyboard right now. It’s free now so you don’t have any excuses. Joe Braidwood is the Chief Marketing Officer for SwiftKey. He’s based out of their San Francisco office. The company also has offices in London and Seoul. Joe hung out with us for about 20 minutes and gave us a bunch of information about the new SwiftKey 5.
SwiftKey 5 launched at midnight Pacific Time on June 10. Within the first six hours of the new keyboard launching, their user base grew by 6 times. In the last 48 hours or so, hundreds of thousands of in-app purchases have been made. SwiftKey users have locked onto the ne Minimal Black keyboard. It’s the most popular pad keyboard, while the Spotlight Orange keyboard is the most popular free option right now. SwiftKey now supports 66 languages, and is incredibly popular in Brazil, Italy, Germany, and India in addition to the US. Those 66 languages are supported contextually, which means natural language is recognized. It’s not just a static dictionary. The keyboard now has Emoji support, with both Emoji prediction and learned Emoji use. This works the same way that word prediction and learning works.
The new themes are a huge part of the SwiftKey 5. There are currently 48 themes that can be downloaded and used. Joe mentioned to us that they are working on a rating system for their themes, too. In the future, users will be able to rate the keyboards in the SwiftKey store. The ratings will allow you to see which themes people love the most. Pretty cool stuff!
Huge thanks to Joe for coming on tonight with us, and to Jennifer Kutz for working out all the details for us. We love SwiftKey. Below you can watch the video of Joe talking with us, and you can download or stream the podcast.