Fleksy

Last updated
Fleksy
Original author(s) Thingthing Ltd.
Initial releaseDecember 2012
Operating system iOS
Android
Linux
Unity
Type Virtual keyboard
Predictive Keyboard
In-App Keyboard
License Proprietary
Website www.fleksy.com

Fleksy is a third-party, proprietary virtual keyboard app for Android and iOS devices. It attempts to improve traditional typing speed and accuracy through enhanced auto-correction and gesture controls. Fleksy uses error-correcting algorithms that analyze the region where the user touches the keyboard and feeds this through a language model, which calculates and identifies the intended word. Swiping gestures are used to control common functions, such as space, delete, and word correction.

Contents

Fleksy has introduced Fleksyapps, [1] which are mini-programs and Fleksynext, [2] its Smart Assistant that utilizes artificial intelligence capable of understanding intent, sentiment and context while typing. [3]

Fleksy's mission is to democratize access to language input technologies through their suite of SDKs: Virtual Keyboard SDK, Predictive Text SDK, In-App Keyboard SDK. In June 2023, Fleksy has shared their latest Unity OpenXR-based Predictive Keyboard SDK.

History

Fleksy was developed by Fleksy Inc., a company founded in 2011. [4] It was originally developed for the blind and visually impaired to enable typing through muscle memory. [5]

In July 2012, Fleksy became commercially available on the iPhone as a download from Apple's iOS App Store. [6] On June 15, 2016, the company moved on to Pinterest. [7]

In July 2017, Thingthing Ltd., a competing keyboard company, acquired Fleksy and resumed its development. [8] In 2018, the Fleksy keyboard was acquired by Thingthing Ltd., and given an upgrade.

In summer of 2018, Fleksy opened a seed crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube. [9] In October 2018, Fleksy partnered with Palm and was preinstalled as the default keyboard on all Palm devices. [10]

In 2019, Fleksy introduced Fleksyapps "mini app programs." [11] Afterwards, Fleksy releases its smart assistant, Fleksynext. [2] In October 2019, Fleksy was forced to raise the rating of its keyboard app to PEGI 12 rating on Google Play compared to PEGI 3 carried by Gboard, Google's own app. This rating was restored after the company contacted the International Age Rating Coalition. [12] Google refrained to comment.

In 2019, Fleksy became the first keyboard used for Passive Digital Phenotyping in the Healthcare space.

In May 2020, Fleksy completes its pivot towards B2B as its gaining traction in the market, launching its Software Development Kit (SDK) and taking on clients in Healthcare, Productivity, Generative AI, Augmented Reality, Advertising, Banking and many more.

In February 2021, Fleksy expanded its SDK across 7 verticals. In October 2021, Fleksy announced it has raised a Series A from Inveready to support the growth of its B2B business, helping clients in various industries leverage its input method technologies.

In August 2022, it officially expands into DevTool territory with the launch of its Developer Platform and Integration Documentation, making it easier than ever for software developers globally to test and build their own virtual keyboard. [13]

In January 2023, Fleksy adds an additional 11 verticals, totalizing 18 verticals served. [14]

In February 2024, the company expands officially into Field Mobility (Logistics) and Cybersecurity after winning a prestigious grant from Innovate UK to Combat Financial Fraud on Mobile. [15]

Software

Fleksy’s auto-correct algorithm functions by combining analysis of user typing patterns and linguistic context. Analysis of tap locations (rather than letters selected) affords it the ability to remain tolerant of drifting errors and allows the user to type on an invisible keyboard or even off the keyboard in some instances. [16] As a result, Fleksy has been embraced by the visually-impaired community. [17] [18] [19] [20] The software has been considered for the "Story of the Year" of the Technology Year in Review for 2012 by the American Foundation for the Blind. [5]

Fleksy allows sighted people to blind-type on a touchscreen. [21] Quentin Stafford-Fraser said on his website: "I found I could type whole sentences immediately, without looking at the keyboard". [21]

Availability

Fleksy is available in 82 languages [22] and QWERTY, AZERTY, QWERTZ, Dvorak, and Colemak layouts on Android and iOS. The Fleksy SDK provides autocorrection, next word prediction and swipe input.

Awards

Fleksy has received a number of awards since its release in July 2012:

Related Research Articles

A software development kit (SDK) is a collection of software development tools in one installable package. They facilitate the creation of applications by having a compiler, debugger and sometimes a software framework. They are normally specific to a hardware platform and operating system combination. To create applications with advanced functionalities such as advertisements, push notifications, etc; most application software developers use specific software development kits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Input method</span> Method for generating non-native characters on devices

An input method is an operating system component or program that enables users to generate characters not natively available on their input devices by using sequences of characters that are available to them. Using an input method is usually necessary for languages that have more graphemes than there are keys on the keyboard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virtual keyboard</span> Software component

A virtual keyboard is a software component that allows the input of characters without the need for physical keys. Interaction with a virtual keyboard happens mostly via a touchscreen interface, but can also take place in a different form when in virtual or augmented reality.

iOS Mobile operating system by Apple

iOS is a mobile operating system developed by Apple exclusively for its devices. It was unveiled in January 2007 for the first-generation iPhone, which launched in June 2007. Major versions of iOS are released annually; the current stable version, iOS 18, was released to the public on September 16, 2024.

iOS SDK Software development kit for iOS

The iOS SDK, formerly the iPhone SDK, is a software development kit (SDK) developed by Apple Inc. The kit allows for the development of mobile apps on Apple's iOS and iPadOS operating systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">App Store (Apple)</span> Mobile app distribution platform by Apple

The App Store is an app marketplace developed and maintained by Apple, for mobile apps on its iOS and iPadOS operating systems. The store allows users to browse and download approved apps developed within Apple's iOS SDK. Apps can be downloaded on the iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, and some can be transferred to the Apple Watch smartwatch or 4th-generation or newer Apple TVs as extensions of iPhone apps.

iOS is a mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. and was first released as iPhone OS in June 2007, coinciding with the launch of the first generation iPhone. iPhone OS was renamed iOS following the release of the iPad, starting with iOS 4. With iOS 13, Apple began offering a separate operating system, iPadOS, for the iPad. iOS is also the foundation of the newer audioOS and tvOS, and shares some of its code with macOS. New iOS versions are released yearly, alongside new iPhone models. From the launch of the iPhone in 2007 until the launch of iPhone 4 in 2010, this occurred in June or July; since then, new major versions are usually released in September, with the exception of iOS 5, which released in October 2011. Since the launch of the iPhone in June 2007, there have been 18 major releases of iOS, with the current major version being iOS 18, released on September 16, 2024.

<i>Tap Tap Revenge</i> 2008 video game

Tap Tap Revenge was a music game created by Nate True, and developed and published by Tapulous for iOS in July 2008. It is the first game in Tapulous' Tap Tap series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tapulous</span> American software and video game company

Tapulous, Inc. was an American software and video game developer and publisher headquartered in Palo Alto, California. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company as part of Disney Interactive's Disney Mobile unit. The company's most profitable products were the Tap Tap series of music games, which surpassed thirty-five million downloads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siri</span> Software-based personal assistant from Apple

Siri is a digital assistant purchased, developed, and popularized by Apple Inc., which included it in the iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, macOS, tvOS, audioOS, and visionOS operating systems. It uses voice queries, gesture based control, focus-tracking and a natural-language user interface to answer questions, make recommendations, and perform actions by delegating requests to a set of Internet services. With continued use, it adapts to users' individual language usages, searches, and preferences, returning individualized results.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microsoft SwiftKey</span> Virtual keyboard app

Microsoft SwiftKey is a virtual keyboard app originally developed by TouchType for Android and iOS devices. It was first released for Android in July 2010, followed by an iOS release in September 2014 after Apple's implementation of third-party keyboard support.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Fit</span> Health-tracking platform by Google

Google Fit is a health-tracking platform developed by Google for the Android operating system, Wear OS, and iOS. It is a single set of APIs that blends data from multiple apps and devices. Google Fit uses sensors in a user's activity tracker or mobile device to record physical fitness activities, which are measured against the user's fitness goals to provide a comprehensive view of their fitness.

Onavo, Inc. was an Israeli mobile web analytics company that was purchased by Facebook, Inc., who changed the company's name to Facebook Israel. The company primarily performed its activities via consumer mobile apps, including the virtual private network (VPN) service Onavo Protect, which analysed web traffic sent through the VPN to provide statistics on the usage of other apps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TestFlight</span> iOS app developer tool

TestFlight is an online service for over-the-air installation and testing of mobile applications, currently owned by Apple Inc. and only offered to developers within the iOS Developer Program. Developers sign up with the service to distribute applications to internal or external beta testers, who can subsequently send feedback about the application to developers. The TestFlight SDK additionally allows developers to receive remote logs, crash reports and tester feedback.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Photos (Apple)</span> Digital photograph manipulation application developed by Apple Inc.

Photos is a photo management and editing application developed by Apple. It was released as a bundled app in iOS 8 on September 17, 2014—replacing the Camera Roll—and released as a bundled app to OS X Yosemite users in the 10.10.3 update on April 8, 2015. It was released for tvOS 10 on September 13, 2016.

tvOS Operating system for the Apple TV

tvOS is an operating system developed by Apple Inc. for the Apple TV, a digital media player. In the first-generation Apple TV, Apple TV Software was based on Mac OS X. Starting with the second generation, the software is based on the iOS operating system and has many similar frameworks, technologies, and concepts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gboard</span> Virtual keyboard app for Android and iOS

Gboard is a virtual keyboard app developed by Google for Android and iOS devices. It was first released on iOS in May 2016, followed by a release on Android in December 2016, debuting as a major update to the already-established Google Keyboard app on Android.

Crashlytics was a Boston, Massachusetts-based software company founded in May 2011 by entrepreneurs Wayne Chang and Jeff Seibert. Crashlytics helps collecting, analyzing and organizing app crash reports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tenor (website)</span> Search engine

Tenor, Inc. is an online GIF search engine and database owned by Google. Its main product is the GIF Keyboard, which is available on Android, iOS, and macOS.

Glassbox is an Israeli software company. It sells session-replay analytics software and services.

References

  1. ↑ Fleksy (2019-02-12). "Tired of switching between apps?". Medium.
  2. 1 2 Fleksy (2019-04-29). "How We Built a Privacy-Focused AI". Medium.
  3. ↑ "Fleksy's AI keyboard is getting a store to put mini apps at chatters' fingertips". TechCrunch. 2019-04-03.
  4. ↑ "Fleksy", fleksy.com, Retrieved on 7 February 2013.
  5. 1 2 "2012: A Technology Year in Review" AFB AccessWorld, Retrieved 7 February 2013.
  6. ↑ "Fleksy - Happy Typing" iOS App Store. Retrieved on 7 February 2013.
  7. ↑ "Fleksy Acquired by Pinterest". fleksy.com. Archived from the original on 2016-09-20. Retrieved 2016-06-15.
  8. ↑ "Fleksy gets major robot under ThingThing". TechCrunch. 2017-07-25.
  9. ↑ "Fleksy Keyboard is raising £230,000 investment on Crowdcube. Capital At Risk". Crowdcube. Archived from the original on 2021-03-05. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
  10. ↑ "Fleksy's keyboard grabs $800k+ via equity crowdfunding". TechCrunch. 2018-10-25.
  11. ↑ Fleksy (2019-02-12). "Tired of switching between apps?". Medium.
  12. ↑ "Google's Play Store is giving an age-rating finger to Fleksy, a Gboard rival 🖕". TechCrunch. 23 October 2019. Retrieved 2019-10-27.
  13. ↑ Lomas, Natasha (2022-08-30). "Fleksy targets devs with SDK platform for smart keyboard features". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  14. ↑ "Notion – The all-in-one workspace for your notes, tasks, wikis, and databases". Notion. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  15. ↑ Plante, Olivier (2024-01-03). "Blog - Fleksy Granted Innovate UK Funding to Combat Financial Fraud on Mobile". Fleksy. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  16. ↑ "Hacker News" news.ycombinator.com, Retrieved on 23 August 2012.
  17. ↑ "An App for Wayward Fingers and Thumbs: An Evaluation of the Fleksy App from Syntellia" AFB AccessWorld, Retrieved 7 February 2013.
  18. ↑ "Fleksy Gives Blind iOS Users Top-Speed Typing Access" Archived 2013-01-15 at the Wayback Machine About.com, Retrieved 7 February 2013.
  19. ↑ "Mistype Every Letter & Fleksy Still Knows What Keys You Meant" Archived 2013-01-14 at the Wayback Machine About.com, Retrieved 7 February 2013.
  20. ↑ "Fleksy app: Helping you to type faster" Archived 2013-12-06 at the Wayback Machine Royal National Institute for the Blind, Retrieved 7 February 2013.
  21. 1 2 "Being Accessible | Status-Q" . Retrieved 2022-10-31.
  22. ↑ Fleksy. "What languages does Fleksy support?". Zendesk.
  23. ↑ "Fastest touch-screen text message record officially broken with Fleksy keyboard". Guinness World Records. 2014-05-19.
  24. ↑ " SXSW, Retrieved 30 March 2013.
  25. ↑ "Fleksy typing app gets main stream recognition in the Apple Australian App Store" [ sic ] Vision Australia, Retrieved 7 February 2013.
  26. ↑ "CES Innovation Awards" Archived 2013-02-09 at the Wayback Machine CES, Retrieved 7 February 2013.
  27. ↑ "Qualcomm Press Release" Qualcomm, Retrieved 7 February 2013.
  28. ↑ "Fleksy - App of the Month August 2012" Archived 2012-09-17 at the Wayback Machine Royal National Institute of the Blind, Retrieved 7 February 2013.
  29. ↑ "Announcing the AppleVis Golden Apples of 2012" AppleVis, Retrieved 7 February 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.