Apple has just announced QuickType, a new predictive typing keyboard for iOS 8. The system appears similar to SwiftKey, a popular third-party keyboard for Android; it predicts the next word you're going to type based on the sentence context and your past history. But it goes a little further in other ways, recording your typing style with different apps and contacts — perhaps you type more casually in iMessage than Mail, or more formally to your boss than your friend, so QuickType will adjust its suggestions accordingly.

"It does all this learning on the device and it protects your privacy," said Apple's Craig Federighi onstage at WWDC 2014. QuickType doesn't appear to include any swipe-to-type functionality as seen in Android and Windows Phone, though iOS 8 will also make third-party keyboards available for the first time.

SwiftKey released a note-taking app for iOS in January. Apple appears to have been working on a feature like QuickType for quite some time, with traces of it appearing as early as iOS 5.

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