Just over a week ago, Microsoft made an announcement via email to Windows Insiders informing them that the Word Flow keyboard found on Windows Phone would be brought to other platforms including iOS. The email invited Windows Insiders to participate in the beta program before the public release of the keyboard in the App Store.
At first glance, the iOS Word Flow keyboard looks fairly similar to its Windows Mobile 10 cousin. The key font and layout appear to be identical with minor differences in the presentation of function keys such as the language selection key. What you may notice is that to the left and right of the predictive text area are two curved icons which are used to engage left and right-handed typing modes.
This is where we see a deviation between the two platforms. Under iOS, the Word Flow keyboard is presented as a quarter circle wedge with the key rows contoured to follow the range of your thumb. This contrasts against the Windows 10 Mobile version which retains its rectangular layout in all modes but shrinks the keys when docked to the left or right side of the screen.
However, it does not appear that the iOS Word Flow keyboard can be repositioned on screen like its Windows 10 Mobile counterpart. Being able to shift the keyboard further up the screen could be of benefit to those who find texting with a single hand on larger iPhones a challenge. Whether or not Microsoft could enable such functionality would largely depend upon the constraints of iOS.
Microsoft is planning to publicly release its iOS Word Flow keyboard in the next few months while an Android version will be released later in the year.
Source: Thurrott.com | Word Flow keyboard images via The Verge
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