Microsoft's Word Flow Keyboard For iOS Enters Closed Beta Phase

(Photo : Christopher Pearce/Getty Images) Microsoft has not announced a firm timeline for when the new iOS keyboard will be released.

Microsoft has officially announced that its iOS keyboard, Word Flow, is now now in its closed Beta phase.

The company opened the registration for the beta this Tuesday, just barely a week after releasing the Hub Keyboard for iOS.

"Our app is currently in a closed beta release, which means we want to get it just right before we open it up to everyone," the company said on the Word Flow registration page.

The company did not disclose any information regarding the release date of the final version of the app for all iOS device users.

The Word Flow keyboard is a project initiated by Microsoft Garage, the tech company's experimental branch responsible for projects that have no direct relation to Microsoft's main business.

Word Flow functions very much like the Windows Phone keyboard, which allows users to type using swipe gestures, as pointed out by Digital Trends.

Typing using swipe gestures will enable the keyboard to intelligently predict what the user is about to type next. This is also the same feature popularized by the Swype app.

Microsoft Garage has also added two new features to the Word Flow keyboard that's not on the Windows Phone keyboard.

The first feature allows users to customize the look of the keyboard by choosing a background color or any photo from their camera roll or gallery.

The second and certainly the most interesting new feature is the one-handed typing mode. This will change the orientation of the keyboard into an arc shape on one side of the iPhone, according to The Verge.

This would certainly be convenient for users who have smaller hands and are using an iPhone 6 Plus or 6S Plus.

Microsoft has put a lot of effort recently in making keyboards for other platforms.

The company released the Hub Keyboard for Android, which was eventually released for iOS just last week.

The Hub Keybaord provided users quick access to their Office 365 documents so that they can easily send or share files without switching to another app.

However, the Hub Keyboard's full functionality can only be unlocked if a user is an Office 365 subscriber.

In February, Microsoft also acquired SwiftKey, another keyboard app that featured customization, swipe gestures and curser control.