Apple
This award-winning iOS keyboard for the blind is shutting down because of Apple’s brutal policies
Apple reportedly wanted to buy the app, which makes the situation that much more interesting.

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.
A popular, award-winning iPhone keyboard for blind users is shutting down. The reason? The developer says that Apple has made it impossible to continue.
That app? FlickType, a replacement keyboard for both the iPhone and Apple Watch that is designed to work in tandem with VoiceOver, Apple’s screen reading technology. It’s lauded praise from the press, and even the National Federation of the Blind, who called it “a much faster experience than the standard iOS keyboard.”
The app’s developer says that Apple has been incorrectly rejecting the app from the App Store for years. Every time, the developer has appealed and Apple has relented, until the latest rejection. The developer says they contacted the company nine times last week, with no reply, and feels that “they seem to be ignoring our attempts to contact them directly.”
The plot thickens even further, with FlickType’s developer suing Apple back in March of this year. While the allegations focused on “roadblock after roadblock” that the iPhone maker supposedly threw up, there was also an inference of market manipulation.
See, Apple was in the process of trying to buy FlickType from the developer, Kosta Eleftheriou, and the lawsuit alleges that the issues he found in getting the app into the App Store were to make him “simply give up and sell its application to Apple at a discount.”
Whatever the outcome of the lawsuit, or even the reversal of the App Store decision, Eleftheriou wants Apple to apologize for what he characterizes as “developer abuse.” Speaking to Ars Technica, he also says he’s going to “try and provide the watch keyboard, for now at least,” so he’s not given up on his loyal FlickType users.
Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.
Editors’ Recommendations:
- This Apple Watch leak will excite people that like the square body of the new iPhones
- Samsung is finally removing those annoying in-app ads from its apps
- WhatsApp’s CEO is definitely not a fan of Apple’s new controversial photo-scanning feature
- Are Apple’s new controversial child protection features actually secure?
Follow us on Flipboard, Google News, or Apple News
