Not too long ago, Microsoft announced that they were buying up fan-favorite keyboard app Swiftkey. Their plans weren’t made entirely clear, but owning Swiftkey would likely help to bolster their artificial intelligence efforts, for starters; Swiftkey uses AI-based prediction to figure out what you’ll be typing or emoting next. To top it off, Microsoft has been working on their own keyboard for the iPhone and Android, called Word Flow. At the very least, Swiftkey’s assets and people would be a huge boon for the development of that and bringing it to other platforms, though they may simply give it the boot and use Swiftkey, given its popularity. This could also mean that Swiftkey would be hitting Windows 10 at some point. In any case, Microsoft made the official announcement on Tuesday that their acquisition of Swiftkey was complete and on the books.
A Microsoft enginner, Harry Shum, took to Twitter to commemorate the occasion today, saying “Let’s do great things together for our customers.” The acquisition being completely finalized at this point, Microsoft now has total control over Swiftkey in every facet, from control over their app on each platform to control over Swiftkey’s assets and people. This means they could assume total control over the product’s direction, as they did with Skype, or even give it the axe and integrate its functions into their own products, as they did with Sunrise Calendar. Microsoft has yet to make any formal announcement at this time, leaving fans to assume that things will continue as they always were until further notice.
Some fans of Swiftkey, however, have been less than receptive of the new owners of their favorite keyboard app. One vocal fan took to Twitter, commenting on Harry Shum’s post to request that Microsoft avoid ruining Swiftkey like they did Skype, as he wants to continue using it. Harsh criticisms of the deal are in no short supply, since Microsoft has yet to announce their intentions as to the Swiftkey acquisition. At this point, only time will tell what Microsoft’s true intentions may be, but one thing is set in stone; the deal is officially complete as of today and Microsoft can do with Swiftkey as they please.