Reviving FlickType

Hi All,

This will be a very long, and detailed post. However, I want to bring as much information to this as I can in one place, so that we can hopefully figure out a way forward and a practical solution, either temporary or permanent.

As many of you probably know, FlickType was an incredible keyboard app for IOS, specifically developed for blind and low vision users. For me and many others, it was a revolutionary typing experience that was like nothing I've seen before or since, on any touch screen keyboard. The basic concept as described on the FlickType Website is, "Delete and change entire words with a single flick of your finger. Control the cursor directly from the keyboard. When typing, don't slow down and try to be accurate. Simply tap-type where it feels right and FlickType's unique algorithm will find the correct word from the pattern of your taps." In other words,

• based on where you think the letters should be on the screen, type the word you want, and swipe right. FlickType will guess the word you wanted based on your finger positions and it's algorithms etc.
• If it chooses the correct word, just keep typing/swiping and repeat the process. If not, swipe down to hear more suggestions for the word you entered, and when you find the right one, keep typing the rest of the phrase. When you're done, swipe right again to enter punctuation. (period, comma, etc.)

This is very hard to explain effectively in writing, but it's incredibly easy and intuitive when you actually use the keyboard. It's auto-correction and suggestions were impressively accurate, and I used it as my primary system-wide keyboard for at least 3 or 4 years, that's how good it was. It even had ways to add names/custom words that it didn't know by default, so it would recognize them when you typed them, and a whole bunch of other very helpful features.

A Little History:

FlickType was developed by Kosta Eleftheriou and his wife Ashley. The app was originally developed as Fleksy, before he later sold Fleksy to Pinterest, when they promised that the keyboard would remain accessible to blind and visually impaired users, and then promptly broke that promise just months after their acquisition. Here's an old article on the merger.

Then, 2 years later, Kosta launched FlickType, which brought back Fleksy's original keyboard technology with some new features, and a much-appreciated system-wide keyboard extension. An NFB article from 2018 summarizes all of this as well.

Then again, about 2 years later, Apple's fight with Kosta begins.

Kosta's first issues with Apple began in late 2019 into 2020, when Apple started taking his app off, and then back on the app store, for no clear reason. You can read Kosta's account of what happened here. Eventually, Flicktype was back on the app store and all was good...until scammers started copycatting Flicktype as a "shell app" and charging users subscription fees for an app that never worked. Kosta documents this at great length here, and you can read more about the ridiculous amount of app store scams in this Verge article as well. Despite numerous press stories and direct inquiries to Apple from journalists, the scams still continue to this day, and Kosta, understandably so, couldn't take it anymore.

In 2021, Kosta wrote: "It's with a heavy heart today that we're announcing the discontinuation of our award-winning iPhone keyboard for blind users. Apple has thrown us obstacle after obstacle for years while we try to provide an app to improve people's lives, and we can no longer endure their abuse."

Discontinuing the Extension

After making this announcement, Kosta stated he would leave the FlickType app on the app store, for both iPhone and watch, but he would discontinue the system-wide keyboard extension. This drew quite a bit of backlash, and in my opinion, some rather unwarranted vulgar comments directed to Kosta online by some of the blind community. Of course I shared the frustration at the extension being gone, but screaming expletives at the developer certainly wasn't going to make him change his mind ;)

A few months later, I sent an email to Kosta. I'm also a registered developer with Apple, and while I have no experience developing an app at his level, I at least wanted to reach out and lend a helping hand if I could. I asked him what his future plans were, if I could be of any assistance etc, with no response.

Then in late 2022 I messaged him again, this time on X (formerly Twitter). It really hit me hard when FlickType's keyboard extension stopped working, because I almost had to relearn how to type on the regular IOS keyboard, because I had used FlickType regularly for so long. I was starting to really want to figure out a way to bring the app/keyboard back and thought maybe he hadn't seen my email. But again, no response.

Where are we Now?

FlickType version 2021.8 was the last version in the app store to contain the keyboard system-wide extension. It is still in the app store as of this writing, with a 2024 bug fix update. However, it seems to be almost entirely focused on the watch keyboard side of the app, and the iPhone "container" form of the keyboard long forgotten. VoiceOver with IOS 17 kind of works the way FlickType was originally intended, but words don't read out properly after you swipe right, and there are a number of other inconsistencies, likely caused by Apple's OS update but still unresolved. Again, I reached out to Kosta on X with no response yet as of this writing; I'll update here if that changes.

I did find that someone posted an IPA file of FlickType just before the extension vanished, but the file is still encrypted, so trying to install it on your iPhone yields numerous errors. And even if you were able to get it installed, I have a feeling it would suffer from the same bugs of the current app store version as mentioned above, due to changes in IOS updates.

My goal here is not to "out" this developer, or even Apple for that matter, though I think they absolutely have some explaining/cleaning up to do. But especially if FlickType's legal battles seem to be over, there has to be a way for blind and visually impaired users to have access to this typing experience that was so amazing. Whether that's making something open-source through Github or similar platforms, using Test Flight, or maybe even using a third-party app store if they come to the US, given the recent changes to app store controls and payment processing etc due to European laws. I know Apple is still creating loopholes around these changes which Kosta has also recently highlighted, but I'm just throwing it out there as a possible suggestion. No one should ever have to endure what Kosta has gone through in the past few years. But let's at least start the conversation. and figure out a way to continue to pursue transparency and accountability from both developers and giant tech companies, while simultaneously allowing life-changing apps to prosper. Let's bring the full FlickType experience back for good.