Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has reportedly been developing an iOS keyboard that is search-focused. The Verge reported that the keyboard had been in development for the past three years.
iOS users will get to use the app once it is made available through the third party keyboard support offered by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). Alphabet has not yet revealed the launch date for the keyboard app. Some of the features that will be expected from the keyboard include word prediction and gesture typing. It will also have the ability to search images as well as well as the ability to launch a Google web search.
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Google has largely dominated the global search market but despite the muscle over the search industry, it has become less lucrative for Google and desktop. Last year, journalist Charles Arthur stated that half the number of smartphone users do not do any searches on their handsets. Desktop users, on the other hand, visit the search engine 1.23 times a day.
Alphabet believes that having control over the keyboard is a good strategy for its advertising. This is because the ability to launch Google searches using the keyboard will probably lead to more Google searches and that translates to more ad views. The more searches made on Google’s search engine, the higher the chances of serving advertisements to users.
Unfortunately, it is a bit tricky for iOS users looking to use the Google keyboard on their devices. This is because Apple makes it difficult to set third party apps as default. Google has not made any official announcements about the keyboard and some sources even suggest that the company might be making the iOS keyboard as an internal project. This means that there is a likelihood that Alphabet might decide not to launch the keyboard.