Google is working on a keyboard app for iOS, report says

Google may be working on a standalone keyboard app for iOS — but not for the reasons you may think.

The company has reportedly been testing an iOS keyboard app for months in the hopes that it could help increase search traffic on iOS devices

The app apparently uses the same gesture-based typing as the stock keyboard app on Android, according to The Verge, who detailed the unreleased app in a new report. But while the app may bring faster typing, its true purpose is to bolster search traffic on iOS devices

Given that it reportedly has Google's web and image (including GIFs) searching abilities baked-in, the goal, it seems, is to give iOS users a way to perform quick on-the-fly searches while they are using other apps. (The report notes that smartphone users search significantly less than those on desktop.) Read more...