FloType Public Beta is Here!

Introduction

Hi everyone,

I'm excited to share something with all of you that I've been working on for a little while.

As many of you know, iOS — and touch screens in general — don't have an easy, efficient way to type without seeing the screen. If you've used Apple products for a long time, you might remember Fleksy, and later FlickType — both keyboards that helped this cause greatly, and then stopped being maintained. I've missed that typing experience immensely, so I've created FloType: a blind/low-vision friendly keyboard that lets you type quickly and accurately, with gestures that are already familiar to you.

What it is

FloType is a VoiceOver-first keyboard for blind and low-vision users, inspired by the eyes-free typing approach that Fleksy pioneered and FlickType refined. You type by tapping approximately where you think the keys would be on a standard QWERTY keyboard, and FloType reads your finger patterns to figure out the word you're typing. Swipe right to commit it to the text field, and down to find other suggestions if that's not the word you intended. Spacing is handled for you automatically, and swiping right after a word lets you insert punctuation — or emoji, if you've configured them in settings.

What you can do

• Tap to type, swipe to commit. Tap anywhere in the keyboard area; swipe right to enter the word. Swipe up or down to cycle suggestions. Swipe left to delete.
• A rotor, right in the keyboard. Hold two fingers and twist — just like VoiceOver's rotor — to move the cursor by characters, words, or lines.
• Hear it all back. A four-finger tap reads the entire text field aloud.
• Numbers, symbols, and emoji. Plus a Quick Keys row for fast access to common symbols.
• Light and Dark themes, with a Large Keys option for big, bold, high-contrast keys.
• Customizable sounds and haptics for typing, swiping, and more.

FloType adapts and learns the way you tap over time, all learning stays on your device, and it works across the apps you already use through the iOS keyboard extension.

FloType is currently in beta — and I'd appreciate your help

FloType is in active beta; this means there might be some bugs I haven't dealt with yet, and it may not always behave as expected — but that's where you come in. I still have many more features I'd like to add before an official App Store release, but I wanted to put it in your hands first. Play with it, enjoy it, test it, and give me any feedback you have — suggestions, bugs, feature requests, anything. Please be as honest as possible; my goal is to make this an incredible keyboard for everyone who uses it.

** Join the beta here**

Questions, feedback, or just want to say hi? Reach me at flotypeapp@gmail.com.

Thanks for giving it a try.

— Rocco

FloType is an independent app. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Fleksy or FlickType in any way. These names are used only to describe the kind of typing experience FloType offers.