Acti launches AI agent keyboard for iOS and Android
Original: Acti puts AI agents directly into your smartphone keyboard
Why This Matters
Demonstrates shift toward embedding AI into existing interfaces rather than standalone chatbots, potentially reshaping mobile app interaction patterns.
Singapore-based startup Acti launched an agentic keyboard for iOS and Android on Tuesday that integrates AI agents directly into smartphone keyboards, allowing users to take AI-powered actions within email, messaging, and social media apps without switching applications.
Acti, founded by Young Wang (former Baidu executive who grew Facemoji Keyboard to 300 million daily active users), introduces an AI-powered keyboard that embeds AI tools directly into existing apps rather than requiring users to open separate chatbots. The keyboard can perform tasks like providing local restaurant recommendations in conversations, sharing live stock prices mentioned in chats, translating messages, and sharing meeting links through custom shortcuts called Skills. The service is powered by Google's Gemini models, selected for their balance of intelligence, speed, reliability, multilingual capabilities, and cost efficiency. Acti employs a local-first privacy model, keeping users' personal context on their devices by default and not accessing or storing private messages unless users explicitly invoke features requiring external processing. Wang stated the keyboard solves the fragmentation problem where users must constantly switch between apps to access AI assistance, positioning Acti as foundational to the AI-agent era by providing context continuity across applications.