Microsoft to end support SwiftKey for iOS on October 5th
Microsoft has announced that it is ending support for SwiftKey for iOS. The popular keyboard app will be delisted from Apple's App Store on October 5th.
Microsoft to end support SwiftKey for iOS
SwiftKey debuted on iOS in the year 2014. Its success on Android and iOS drew the attention of Microsoft, and the Redmond company acquired it for $250 Million. The acquisition allowed the development of SwiftKey to prosper, and it continued adding new features on both mobile operating systems.
Despite its popularity, Microsoft seemed to abandon support for the keyboard app last year, even stopping the occasional bug fixes. The current version of SwiftKey for iOS is 2.9.2, it was released a year ago, in August 2021. Yet, it continues to function even on the latest version of the operating system, iOS 16.
SwiftKey's technology is also being put to use in Windows 11, specifically for the Windows Touch Keyboard. It is also capable of syncing the clipboard data between Windows and Android devices.
Chris Wolfe, Director of Product Management at SwiftKey, told The Verge that users who have SwiftKey installed on their iOS device can continue to use it even after it is deslisted. But the keyboard app cannot be downloaded again if it is uninstalled, this also means that users who switch to new devices will be unable to fetch it from the App Store. Wolfe also confirmed that SwiftKey for Android remains unaffected by this announcement, and will continue to be supported. He did not explain why Microsoft is discontinuing SwiftKey on iOS.
When ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley asked Microsoft for more details about the decision to end support for the keyboard app, the company's officials had nothing to say. The author speculates that Microsoft may have decided to abandon the app due to the limitations imposed by Apple, for third-party keyboards.
Interestingly, we were unable to sign in to our Microsoft account via the SwiftKey app. When I looked up a fix for it, I came across a post on reddit where users have been facing the same issue since last month. It is also worth mentioning that all articles related to the iOS app on SwiftKey's support portal have been removed. A new page is live on the website, it states that SwiftKey for iOS is being deprecated, and hence will be delisted from the App Store on October 5th. It also asks users to visit https://data.swiftkey.com/ to manage your data. If you want to continue using the app, now is your chance to download it on your iPhone or iPad, before it is delisted permanently next week.
I have been using SwiftKey for around 10 years (initially on Android, and later on iOS), and I can't think of a good alternative keyboard app for iOS. Google's keyboard app, Gboard for iOS, hasn't been updated for a few months now, and it's not as good as SwiftKey in my opinion, the accuracy of the gestures, the word prediction, and automatic punctuation were better in the latter. I suppose this means we are stuck with Apple's stock keyboard now, which is not a very good app.
Did you like SwiftKey for iOS?
Most people are finding it is related to the newest Pokémon Go! update. If you check control center, Pokémon Go! has accessed location just prior to the vibrations.
You are the best I didn’t even think about that being the problem even tho I said to my friend it’s vibrating randomly like Pokémon go does when new Pokémon pop up
It’s happening on beta release isn’t this to be expected? Any beta release is going to have bugs.
“You can browse the internet privately on your iPhone too”
No, you can’t. See below.
“This means that no one will be able to see what you’ve been browsing unless you tell them.”
No-one you would allow to use your devices. It’s important to remind that online trackers still get almost as much as before in this mode, tracking you for the duration of the session at least. In fact a quick search on whether cookies (and local storage, indexedDB, and so on) are even cleared at exit or not in Apple’s private browsing gives contradictory answers (maybe this has to do with Apple’s habit of conveniently avoiding to get technical with users, even when that means more opportunities to fool them) and your article doesn’t say more, so it’s not even clear to me that there is any protection against online trackers.
About the other Apple privacy tools you mention, I wouldn’t trust them. They killed the actual privacy tools like ublock origin on Safari that hide the IP address from trackers, to then provide their own fake replacement, like Google and their Mozilla pet company are slowly doing too with their own browsers. From the mouth of such companies, even “blocking cookies” may actually mean something weaker, like having an undisclosed tracker whitelist for bullshit reasons that ublock origin doesn’t seem to need (Mozilla does that for instance), not actually blocking them but just isolating them while still writing they’re blocked (Mozilla did that through inaccurate UI wording for third-party cookies), or keeping in place for years privacy bugs that they are aware of and that don’t remove storage when it’s supposed to be (Mozilla again, and they’re not worse than the others). And it’s only a few examples.
Is there also need to remind that Safari like all the other big browsers is infested with Apple’s own spyware antifeatures (including for advertisers, unlike what they pretend in their ads) ?
Sneak PEEK.
It has been weeks where the comments sections are littered with old unrelated comments. Maybe it’s time to say goodbye to ghacks.
This should have been an open standard that works across laptops, OSes, and phones. I doubt it will be though and we will just have to wait until the EU drops the hammer in 8-10 years ?