Microsoft Hub Keyboard App Now Available for iOS

Microsoft, which launched its Hub Keyboard for Android in February this year, has now brought the app to iOS as well. Made by the Microsoft Garage team, the keyboard app offers a range of features that enhance your typing and chatting experience.

The Microsoft Keyboard Hub app for iOS, like its Android counterpart, integrates Microsoft products and services. If you have a PowerPoint slideshow named "report" saved in your OneDrive account, for instance, simply mentioning the word "report" when chatting with your colleagues will give you the option to share the download link of that file. You can also search for your SharePoint documents from your work, school, or university Office 365 accounts.

In addition, when you mention a friend's name when talking to some other person, Hub Keyboard prompts you with an option to share that friend's contact. You also get the option to translate one language to another without having to switch across any other app.

The work-focused keyboard comes with a minimalistic design including attachment and search buttons placed right above the keyboard. The Hub Keyboard can be downloaded for free from the App Store. It weighs 21.2MB and is compatible with iOS 9.1 and later versions.

However, for those looking for some fun with typing, Microsoft's SwiftKey has launched a ShakeSpeak Keyboard app that would let you text like William Shakespeare. The app uses predictive keyboard technology to complete sentences in the manner of Shakespeare. For instance, writing "To be" will prompt the app to complete the sentence with "or not to be, that is the question," or "All the", which is completed as "world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players".

Lately companies have updated their keyboard apps drastically to improve a user's writing experience on digital devices. Not only Microsoft has been constantly working on their keyboard apps, but Google too has found some traction with its stock Android keyboard. The search giant is also reportedly working on a keyboard for iOS.