While it’s a feature that many of us don’t think about frequently,your phone’s keyboardis perhaps the most used tool on the device. Whether you prefer to swipe to type or tap letter-by-letter, the keyboard you choose to use greatly impacts how quickly you communicate. These days, there are several different keyboard options to suit your personal preferences. Microsoft is now taking things one step further with its SwiftKey keyboard app, integrating new features for livelier conversations. Those who are using SwiftKey Beta will be able to generate AI images right from their keyboard.
Asspotted byAndroid Police founder Artem Russakovskii, an update to the keyboard app in the Google Play Store lists a few tweaks, including integration of theBing AI Image Creatorpowered by DALL-E. If you’re big on finding the right emoji, GIF, or photo to capture your mood mid-conversation, the AI generator might be right up your alley. In addition, SwiftKey Beta delivers more customization to your keyboard than you previously had viaMaterial You— for most devices on Android 12 and up, your keyboard’s theme will now automatically adjust to complement the tones of your home screen wallpaper.
SwiftKey’s Bing Image Creator is powered by DALL-E
The integration of the Bing AI Image Creator is one of many moves Microsoft has made to improve the SwiftKey app. Earlier this year,the company added its AI chat generator to the keyboard. Upon tapping on the Chat tab, users can access Bing Chat to submit a query and receive a detailed response, citations and all. Microsoft also added a Tone tab, which allows users to alter a typed sentence to fit a particular style (Think “Professional” while speaking to a colleague, or “Casual” for a message directed toward a friend).
Whether you use AI regularly in your daily life or you don’t encounter it often, it’s popping up across mobile devices everywhere. Even Google is reportedlyplanning to integrate AI features into its Gboard keyboard app. Last month, a feature called Proofread was spotted within the beta version of the keyboard. When enabled, a popup appears in your keyboard after you complete a sentence, asking you if you want to fix it. The keyboard then provides you with one-tap suggestions and asks you for feedback. Presumably, Google is using this insight to tweak the feature before it becomes official.
Even if you haven’t leveraged the touted benefits of AI just yet, there are now several apps that can help you ease into it. Ones like Gboard and SwiftKey make it simple to become familiar with how AI can simplify aspects of daily life. The best part of them is that they only alter your keyboard — a single tool you use regularly, meaning you can get plenty of practice with little consequence. In the end, you may even begin to embrace the future of technology as AI paints it to be.
