SwiftKey revolutionises predictive text
Digital start-up, SwiftKey, founded with help of Innovate UK grant has predictive keyboard installed on more than 300 million devices worldwide.
In the 9 years since it was released, predictive keyboard app SwiftKey has saved its users an estimated 100,000 years in typing time, and has been installed on more than 300 million smartphone devices.
With the help of a £15,000 Innovate UK grant, University of Cambridge graduates Jon Reynolds and Dr Ben Medlock founded SwiftKey in 2008. The firm’s flagship product, a predictive keyboard app, uses language technology to reduce typing time by anticipating what the user is going to say next, correcting spelling errors and even suggesting emoji based on what the user has just typed.
Despite the accolades, awards and company takeover by Microsoft, Jon says that innovation remains at the heart if what he does.
"From day one we were obsessed about innovating, we were obsessed about making sure our product got better over time. We build the world’s best keyboard technology, predictive text, next word prediction, and we’ve been the world leaders in smartphone keyboards for the last five years.
"[Running the company] is great fun. It can be an amazing opportunity to push yourself and meet amazing people, to really be on the edge of where technology is going, to be in a position where you can influence the way the world, to some degree, is developing. A lot of the great entrepreneurs that I meet are fundamentally frustrated by something about the world. They want to change the world and make this problem better for everyone."
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