Ever since Apple introduced support for third-party keyboards in iOS 8, developers have been racing to offer users more functionality than what’s provided by the stock keyboard alone, whether that’s better predictive typing, support for GIFs or different input methods like Swype. A new keyboard app launching today, WordBoard, is instead focused on saving you from having to type the same things over and over, including standardized emails.
The app was developed by Stuart Hall, whose company Bytesize today has a number of iOS applications on the iTunes App Store, both free and paid. The largest of these, the “7 Minute Workout” app, was downloaded 2 million times, and was recently acquired by Wahoo Fitness.
With WordBoard, he says the idea is to allow users to personalize and program their keyboards with regularly used information, like your email address, mailing address, phone number, favorite hashtags for use on social media, ASCII art or even email template replies.
While there are a few keyboard apps that allow you to save commonly used information or favorite phrases – we’ve looked at OftenType and PhraseBoard before, for example – WordBoard’s support for email templates could see it appealing more to business users than consumers. With the ability to save longer, customized emails like sales templates, customer support responses, or even just different email signatures for your many hats, WordBoard could prove useful for those who run their businesses from their mobile phones.
For consumers, there’s also a paid feature that lets you import your hashtags from Twitter and Instagram, in order to set up personalized “boards” with your favorite tags. This is available for an in-app purchase of $1.99, which also gives you the option to import contacts and create an unlimited number of keys.
Since the free version includes only up to six keys, most will likely want to upgrade in order to utilize WordBoard’s full functionality. (In a way, the free download basically allows you to test the app before committing to buy.)
As with most iOS 8 keyboards, you’ll have to give the app full access in settings in order for the form-filling features to work after installation. The company clarifies it only does this to share data between the app and keyboard, and doesn’t use other features that “full access” enables, such as network access.
The app is available here on iTunes, and makes a decent addition to your lineup of extra keyboards.
