A Look at Microsoft's Upcoming Word Flow Keyboard, Now in Closed Beta Testing

Rumors in January suggested Microsoft was working to bring its Word Flow Windows Phone keyboard to iOS, and now the company's keyboard project has entered a private beta testing phase. Starting this week, a limited number of testers have been given access to the Word Flow iOS keyboard.

MacRumors reader Ruben has shared some images and information with us, giving us our first look at the design and the features Microsoft plans to implement. According to Ruben, the keyboard is "incredibly reliable for a beta," with features like sounds, themes, and the much-anticipated one-handed "Arc" mode, accessed with a drag gesture.

In its default mode, the Word Flow keyboard looks a lot like a standard iOS keyboard, but its one-handed mode sets it apart from other offerings. With one-handed mode turned on, the keyboard morphs into a half-moon shape, arranging the letters to one side of the device for easy thumb access. The Word Flow keyboard supports both standard typing and swipe-based typing, as is one on third-party keyboards like Swipe and SwiftKey.

Standard keyboard features like auto correction and word prediction are included, with options to enable or disable a word learning feature that improves word predictions by sending keyboard usage information to Microsoft. Multiple Word Flow themes are included, including light and dark options, and there are also tools for creating custom themes based on images taken from the iPhone's Photo Library.  

Additional information shared by iMore yesterday covers other features like quick access to Contacts through autofill and a free built-in image library that Microsoft plans to add to over time.