Report: Google is developing a keyboard for iOS

Google’s relationship with Apple has been one of a seemingly love-hate variety. It’s hard to believe that the search giant’s name was not only invoked by Steve Jobs during the announcement of the original iPhone, but its then-CEO, Eric Schmidt, was brought on stage. The topic of course, was Google’s partnership with Apple to provide the backbone of the iPhone’s Maps app and search for Safari. Here is the clip in its full glory, including Schmidt’s creative coining of the term, AppleGoo:

In the years that followed, Steve Jobs threatened to go “thermonuclear” on Google, assumed to be half-based on the growing success of Mountain View’s then nascent Android OS, as well as the fact that Schmidt himself had been a member of Apple’s Executive Board whilst the iPhone was being developed. The situation went solidly sour after Apple formally unveiled its own internally-developed Maps app sans any support from Google. Of course, as some may remember, that decision resulted in a PR crisis that still haunts Cupertino today along with a high-profile exit.

These days however, Google has made app development for Apple iOS products a proper priority. Indeed the iPhone and iPad were quite quick to receive the most current redesign of Google Plus, for example. Now it seems Google is going to add a variant of its Android Keyboard to the mix as well, according to an exclusive story by The Verge. Says writer Casey Netwon:

Google has been developing a third-party keyboard for iOS that would put the company’s search engine in a highly used part of the interface, The Verge has learned. The keyboard, which incorporates a variety of search options, has been in development for months, according to people familiar with the matter. It’s unclear whether or when Google plans to release it. The company declined to comment.

The story goes on to say that while the Google keyboard will include gesture-based typing support (similar to what Swype introduced years ago) it will also include “distinct buttons for pictures and GIF searches, both presumably powered by Google image search.” Rounding out the virtual input method is a web search that can be activated by tapping the Google logo.

According to Newton, the keyboard has been “in circulation among employees for months, [and] is designed to boost the number of Google searches on iOS.”

Good for Google

Just this past week, a report came out indicating that Google earns a third of all the revenue from searches on the web, with the caveat being that there are threats looming. The profit picture becomes potentially more problematic when considering a calculation The Verge referenced in its post:

While the company all but holds a monopoly on the global search market, there’s evidence that mobile search is proving much less lucrative for Google than the desktop. Using publicly available numbers, journalist Charles Arthur argued in October that half of smartphone users perform zero searches per day. (Using the same math, Arthur said desktop users perform an average of 1.23 searches per day.)

It’s a fact that Apple has sought to make its voice assistant Siri as front-and-center as possible, with recent iOS updates even facilitating always-on listening functionality. Unfortunately for Google, the search engine used to return results is actually Microsoft’s Bing. This makes sense for obvious business-competitive reasons. It follows, however, that of those people who do search the web on an iOS device, they may be more inclined to speak the search, and less some tinkering is done, Google won’t get a dime from it.

Assuming Google Keyboard for iOS actually makes it to a formal release, even should it not be immensely popular, there would presumably be some tangible benefit from having it available for those who want it.

Wrap Up

While it’s entirely possible that the Google Keyboard may end up being scrapped – though hopefully at least some screen captures surface eventually – the very idea that Mountain View isn’t sitting still while the inquiry engine enterprise evolves definitely indicates that action is being taken to try and stay on top of things.

What about you? Assuming you use or have an iOS device, do you like the stock Apple keyboard? Would you – or someone you know – go gung-ho over an input method graced by the good of of Google? Drop a comment or two below and let everyone know!