Acti launches AI keyboard that performs tasks directly from your smartphone keyboard

Acti puts AI agents directly into your smartphone keyboard

A new startup wants to bring AI to the software you use the most: your smartphone's keyboard. On Tuesday, Singapore-based Acti launched an agentic keyboard for iOS and Android, one that doesn't just suggest your next word but can take actions on your behalf, bringing AI tools directly into the apps you already use, including email, messaging, social media, and more. According to Young Wang, Acti founder and CEO, this solves a problem familiar to anyone juggling multiple apps; users have to constantly switch between different apps just to get an AI's help. "Today's AI agents are fundamentally limited because user context stays fragmented across separate apps," Wang told TechCrunch in an email interview (due to time zone differences). Acti "sits across all of them, which is why we can build a context layer that genuinely belongs to the user instead of the platform," he said. "That is the foundation the entire AI-agent era will be built on." The launch reflects a different idea about how consumers will ultimately embrace AI. Rather than asking users to open various AI chatbots, Acti showcases how AI can be embedded into the interfaces we already use. For instance, if a friend wanted to know where to eat nearby, Acti (short for "action") could drop in a local recommendation. Or if someone mentioned a stock in your conversation, Acti could be used to share the live price right there in the chat. Today, you'd have to switch to a search engine or other AI app to get this sort of information, then return to the app where the conversation occurred, which takes time. Under the hood, Acti is powered by Google's Gemini models, which Wang said were chosen for their balance of intelligence, speed, reliability, multilingual performance, and cost efficiency. Gemini is also well-suited for one of Acti's key features, called Skills, which work like custom shortcuts: users can program a single key on their keyboard to trigger a multi-step task automatically -- for instance, translating a message or instantly sharing a meeting link (see examples below). Importantly, Acti is built around a local-first model, which means users' personal context stays on their device by default for privacy's sake. The company says the app does not access or store private messages, conversations, or personal context unless the user explicitly invokes a feature that requires external processing. Wang says he was encouraged to work on a new keyboard for the AI era after previously spending a decade at Baidu, growing its Facemoji Keyboard to over 300 million daily active users. "When LLMs arrived, I realized something fundamental had changed," Wang said. "Text was no longer just something people typed; it had become a carrier of intent. And in many everyday contexts, that intent can now be directly translated into action." "That made me believe it was time to reinvent one of the most basic and universal products people use every day: the keyboard. For me, the opportunity to rebuild such a foundational surface for the AI era is deeply exciting," he added. Acti's business model is still taking shape, but the company plans to generate revenue via subscriptions that offer users more advanced AI models, higher daily usage limits, and other premium features. The app ships with some built-in Skills already, like "T," which allows you to translate a message to another language by long-pressing the letter on your keyboard. Another Skill, "C," will fire off a meeting link. Users don't have to know how to code to create a Skill, the company points out. Instead, you can just describe what you want in plain language, and Acti builds it. Ahead of launch, early access testers built over 1,000 Skills in less than two weeks. These Skills can be either private for your own use or shared publicly to a Skills marketplace, where you can find those that people already built, like Skills for accessing real-time World Cup data or Polymarket links, among others. In the future, this Skill Hub could also offer additional monetization opportunities. The company also shared with TechCrunch exclusively that it has just closed on $5.3 million in seed funding, in a round led by BITKRAFT Ventures. "We backed Acti because this team has a real shot at owning the next phase of human-computer interaction," said Jonathan Huang, Partner at BITKRAFT Ventures, about the firm's investment. The Acti team also includes CTO Mike Sun, who was the founding technical lead behind Yike Album, Baidu's cloud-photo platform, which scaled to over 10 million daily active users. Also at Acti is CSO Junbo Yang, who joined from HashKey Capital, where Yang led dozens of consumer investments. Acti is currently available for iOS and Android.

Acti just turned your smartphone keyboard into an AI assistant

One keyboard that types your words and does your errands. This might be the upgrade your thumbs have been waiting for. Your smartphone's keyboard is the thing you interact with the most, and yet, it has largely remained the same since it was introduced two decades ago. Yes, it has become better at understanding our typing habits and predicting text, but its function has largely remained unchanged. A Singapore startup called Acti looked at the keyboard and the large space it occupies on your smartphone and asked a fair question. Why not make it actually do things? After seeing its keyboard in action, I think the idea has legs. Recommended Videos Acti, short for "action," just launched on iOS and Android. It is an agentic keyboard, which is a fancy way of saying it does more than suggest your next word. It can actually perform tasks for you inside the apps you already use, whether that is your messages, email, or social media. How does it actually work? The star of the show is the ActiBar, which replaces your humble space bar. Press it to type like normal, or hold it to trigger an action. Say a friend asks where you are. You can type the location in the chat, and hold the ActiBar. It will find that location and drop it into the chat. Similarly, you can use it to find scores, restaurants in the area, and much more. It even creates live mini apps to share things so the other party can easily browse what it found. It does not stop at the space bar either. You can assign actions to any key on the keyboard and connect it with third-party apps. Acti gave several examples to demonstrate this feature. You can hold N to summon a specific Notion doc and drop it into your chat, or hold L to pull up a LinkedIn profile when someone suggests a name. Acti is not doing anything that other AI agents cannot do. What makes it special is that it lives right inside the keyboard so you don't have to switch apps to access your agent. What else can Acti do? Acti also lets users build their own shortcuts, called Skills, by simply describing what they want in plain language. You can keep them private or share them with the community. The app is local-first, so your personal stuff stays on your device unless you use a feature that needs outside help. Acti is free to start, with subscriptions planned for premium features.