Back in the days when the first iPhone came out, people were clamoring for a solution that would allow them to copy text from one app and paste the copied text onto a different app. A third party developer developed the solution. The workaround was called OpenClip, and it allowed users to save copied text to a clipboard that could be used by other apps. App developers simply needed to add support for OpenClip in their apps and users could finally copy paste snippets of text. However, Apple came out with a different solution and OpenClip was forgotten.
While OpenClip was indeed pushed into the sidelines, the developers who made OpenClip did not fade into oblivion. They were busy redesigning one of the core applications on the iOS, the keyboard itself. The final product of their hardwork is Flesky, a third part keyboard alternative to the native iOS keyboard with a lot of tricks up its sleeves.
Flesky is the brainchild of San Fransisco-based startup Syntellia that seeks to give iPhone users a better keyboard experience. The company has recently launched a developer kit that allows developers to add Flesky into their own apps using just one line of code.
While Flesky was released last June, the initial release was simply a demo that developers and power users used to change the default iOS keyboard on their devices. The new keyboard has a host of features like touch-typing and gestures that is aimed to make the experience of typing on a small screen more enjoyable. While the demo had a number of desirable features, it was a stand-alone app, which means that people still needed to copy what they typed on Flesky before pasting the text onto a different app.
Flesky for Android was released last week and Android users can download the app for free. Since its release, the app has already witnessed over 100,000 downloads. Unlike Android's open platform, however, developers on iOS are constrained by what the system allows them to do. This means that pulling off Flesky on iOS is difficult and problematic. However, recent updates to iOS have made the task easier. "With every new version of iOS, the work required on our part to build a keyboard SDK has reduced significantly. We're [now] doing stuff on iOS that integrates the keyboard deeper than it's ever been integrated," Flesky founder Ioannis Verdelis said.
Flesky is available on the App Store and Google Play store.
