SwiftKey, the startup that makes the popular Android word-predicting keyboard software is switching its consumer keyboard app from a $3.99 paid download to free.
“We have made the decision to go free to better enable everyone, everywhere, to use SwiftKey’s market-leading technology without payment being a barrier,” CEO Jon Reynolds said in a statement. “We’re focused not only on reaching more users with our powerful technology, but on building great content and features to engage them.”
The full machine learning keyboard technology adapts to its users’ use of language so it can better predict their next likely words. The free app (v5 of SwiftKey’s keyboard software) is available from today on Google Play. SwiftKey says it’s still in talks with Amazon so the free version is not currently on Amazon’s App Store.
“We’ve fundamentally been a paid app since SwiftKey was first released in 2010 and we’ve been thinking about this for a while and we now believe the right approach for us, looking ahead for the next couple of years, is to make it a free app,” said SwiftKey co-founder and CTO Ben Medlock in a statement.
SwiftKey replaces the typical mobile keyboard with one that understands language and learns your personal writing style to predict your next word and improve autocorrect accuracy.
In just four years on the market, the app landed at the top of the world’s best-selling Android applications, spending more days at No. 1 on Google Play than any other paid app, according to the company.
The popular app will arrive on Apple devices when iOS 8 launches in the fall. Previously, iOS did not allow third-party keyboards, but that all changes with its new mobile OS.
“We’re delighted Apple has decided to embrace the importance of opening its platform to third-party keyboards,” Reynolds and co-founder Ben Medlock said in a statement after the announcement.
