Google’s Gboard keyboard for mobile devices comes with a nifty feature and that is it has Google search built into the keyboard itself. This means that when you are chatting with a friend, instead of having to swap out to another app like the Google app or your browser, you can do a quick search on the keyboard itself.
Now it looks like Microsoft wants in on the fun as well because according to reports, the latest beta for SwiftKey on Android now features integrated Bing search. This is pretty much as its name implies, where users can now search using Bing directly within the keyboard itself, which given that Microsoft bought SwiftKey a couple of years ago, it actually makes a lot of sense that this feature is now part of the keyboard app.
According to Windows Central, the search feature is rather basic and isn’t on the same level as Google’s Gboard, but we expect that over time Microsoft will probably make improvements to it. Of course this will require users to install the SwiftKey keyboard in the first place, and if you actually prefer using Bing over Google, then this could be worth checking out.
Note that the app’s update is still in beta so if you’re not taking part in the beta then you won’t see the changes yet, but it should probably be released soon enough so keep an eye out for it.
Filed in . Read more about Android, Apps, Bing (Microsoft), Microsoft and Swiftkey.