Microsoft abandons SwiftKey keyboard on iOS, soon to disappear from the App Store

This is the end for the SwiftKey keyboard on iOS. Microsoft, who bought it in 2016 for 250 million dollars, announces to abandon its support and will withdraw it from the App Store within a few days.

Here’s what Microsoft said at ZDNet Regarding the discontinuation of SwiftKey on iOS:

Starting October 5, support for SwiftKey on iOS will end and the keyboard will be removed from the Apple App Store. Microsoft will continue to support SwiftKey on Android as well as the underlying technology that powers Windows Touch Keyboard. For customers who have installed SwiftKey on iOS, it will continue to work until manually uninstalled or the user gets a new device. Please visit support.swiftkey.com for more information.

The support site also includes a mention announcing the abandonment:

We are ending support for SwiftKey on iOS. Thank you for being a user of our product. Please visit data.swiftkey.com to find out how to manage your data. The app will be removed from the App Store on October 5, 2022.

Why this abandonment? ZDNet speculates the decision may be related to Apple’s reluctance to give developers access to specific parts of iOS. Users agree that third-party keyboards on iOS have been a pretty mixed experience since the very beginning in 2014. Microsoft seems to agree.