SwiftKey - which was acquired by Microsoft last year, in a deal estimated to be worth around $250 million - has released a major update for its keyboard app on iOS, bringing a range of improvements and new additions.

SwiftKey uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to assess a user's inputs, to help it continuously improve the quality of its next-word predictions. As part of its latest update, the keyboard now includes a new 'emoji prediction panel', as the company explained today: "Once you’ve typed something and tap the emoji key, you’ll see a selection of 18 emoji that match your sentence, making it faster than ever to find the perfect one to go with any message."

Eight new 'Oxygen themes' are now available for the keyboard in "a spectrum of vibrant colors": Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Light Blue, Blue, Purple, and Pink. These free themes can be applied to the keyboard via the 'Design' section of the app.

Source: neowin