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.
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.
Rachit Agarwal / Digital Trends
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.
Acti
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.
Rachit Agarwal / Digital Trends
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.
Acti
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.
