Texting is one of the quickest yet most limiting ways to communicate these days. One cannot hear vocal inflections, nor gauge another person’s mood through text messages, and texting doesn’t compare to the expressiveness that comes from talking on the phone, video-chatting, or you know, interacting with others in person. Not even close.
While emojis have vastly improved the texting experience, even those cute little icons can’t say it all. If texting with emoticons still isn’t expressive enough, what is? One app hopes to take texting to a whole new level by introducing the world’s first animated GIF keyboard.
Want to tell a friend all about the amazing day you’re having? With PopKey, you can say it with Nicolas Cage.
PopKey is a forthcoming downloadable keyboard for smartphones that “allows you to quickly choose from thousands of awesome GIFs that we’ve collected for you.” It is an innovative approach to communication that seeks to enhance the texting experience. PopKey has thousands of GIFs available right at your fingertips, and even allows users to create their own personalized GIFs.
Writes John Brownlee for Fast Company, “One of the most substantial additions to Apple’s iOS 8 software might be third-party keyboards, which allows users to install packages that allow them to enter text in different ways than just hunt-and-pecking,” of how keyboards that contain visuals like emojis are designed to allow more articulation in texting. “But why type like a sucker,” he asks, “when there’s an animated GIF for all occasions? PopKey is an upcoming keyboard for iOS 8 that lets you send people GIFs, emoji-style, instead of just words.”
Even those who aren’t fully on board with text messaging in general – myself included – can agree that a GIF keyboard is pretty neat. Why answer questions from friends with a simple yes or no when you could provide a GIF of Tim Gunn or Conan O’Brien violently shaking their head in disapproval?
Although PopKey isn’t available yet, GIF connoisseurs can get notified about its launch by visiting popkey.co.
