SwiftKey, which was acquired by Microsoft in February for $250 million, is working on its next app to follow its smart keyboard.
Named Swiftmoji, the app will take cues from the SwiftKey app, which uses artificial intelligence to provide users with personalized predictions on what they are typing out. The main difference, however, is that while SwiftKey offers suggestions for words, Swiftmoji will also offer users possible emojis they can insert into their messages.
The app will be suggesting emojis to users based on the message that they have typed out. The recommended emojis will be shown in a row on top of the words being suggested by the app. The row of emojis may be undocked and dragged to any point of the display.
With Swiftmoji, the suggested emojis change as the message is typed out by the user. While this could be distracting due to the shapes and colors of emojis, it will make the process of searching for the right emoji to add into a message much simpler and faster for users.
In addition to suggesting words, other SwiftKey-based features that will also be found in Swiftmoji include keyboard customization options and the flow input feature, which allows users to drag their fingers across the screen to type instead of having to tap the keys.
The app, however, is still in its testing phase, and SwiftKey is inviting users to sign up for its testing program. Only a small number of users will be chosen to participate in the beta testing, but it would not hurt to sign up and get a chance to become a Swiftmoji tester.
SwiftKey already has a feature that suggests emojis, but there is no dedicated row for the emojis as they are included in the same row as the word suggestions. It is not yet clear if the app will launch as a standalone one or if its features will be merged into SwiftKey. Similarly, the company has not yet released details on when Swiftmoji will be publicly made available.
