A new startup is aiming to integrate artificial intelligence directly into one of our most frequently used digital tools: the smartphone keyboard.
This Tuesday, Singapore-based Acti unveiled its innovative "agentic" keyboard for both iOS and Android platforms. This advanced keyboard goes beyond mere word suggestions, offering the capability to execute actions on a user's behalf. It seamlessly embeds AI functionalities into existing applications such as email, messaging, and social media.
Young Wang, founder and CEO of Acti, highlights that this innovation addresses a common challenge for users navigating multiple apps. Traditionally, individuals must constantly switch between different applications to leverage AI assistance.
“Today’s AI agents are fundamentally limited because user context stays fragmented across separate apps,” Wang explained to TechCrunch in an email interview, citing time zone differences. He elaborated that 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.” Wang firmly believes, “That is the foundation the entire AI-agent era will be built on.”
The launch of Acti represents a novel perspective on how consumers will ultimately adopt AI. Instead of directing users to open various AI chatbots, Acti demonstrates a more integrated approach, embedding AI capabilities directly within the familiar interfaces we already utilize daily.
For example, if a friend inquired about nearby dining options, Acti (a name derived from "action") could instantly provide a local recommendation. Similarly, if a stock was mentioned in a conversation, Acti could share its live price directly within the chat. Currently, obtaining such information would involve navigating to a search engine or another AI application and then returning to the original conversation, a process that consumes valuable time.
Underpinning Acti's functionality are Google’s Gemini models. Wang stated that Gemini was selected for its optimal balance of intelligence, speed, reliability, multilingual capabilities, and cost efficiency. Gemini also proves particularly suitable for Acti's signature feature, "Skills." These custom shortcuts allow users to program a single keyboard key to automatically trigger multi-step tasks, such as translating a message or instantly sharing a meeting link.
A crucial aspect of Acti's design is its local-first model, ensuring that users' personal context remains on their device by default, prioritizing privacy. The company assures that the app does not access or store private messages, conversations, or personal context unless a user explicitly initiates a feature requiring external processing.
Wang's inspiration for developing a new keyboard tailored for the AI era stemmed from his decade-long tenure at Baidu, where he previously spearheaded the growth of its Facemoji Keyboard to over 300 million daily active users.
“When LLMs arrived, I realized something fundamental had changed,” Wang remarked. He observed, “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 further elaborated.
While Acti’s business model is still evolving, the company intends to generate revenue through subscriptions. These subscriptions will offer users access to more advanced AI models, higher daily usage limits, and other premium features.
The app comes equipped with several pre-built Skills. For instance, the “T” Skill enables message translation into another language by long-pressing the letter on the keyboard. Another Skill, “C,” facilitates the instant sharing of a meeting link.
Crucially, users do not require coding knowledge to create a Skill, as the company emphasizes. Instead, users can simply describe their desired action in plain language, and Acti will construct it. Prior to its launch, early access testers successfully developed over 1,000 Skills in under two weeks.
These Skills can be kept private for personal use or shared publicly on a dedicated Skills marketplace. This marketplace allows users to discover and utilize Skills already created by others, such as those for accessing real-time World Cup data or Polymarket links. In the future, this "Skill Hub" could also present additional monetization avenues.
Acti also exclusively informed TechCrunch about securing $5.3 million in seed funding, with the round being led by BITKRAFT Ventures.
Jonathan Huang, Partner at BITKRAFT Ventures, commented on their investment, stating, “We backed Acti because this team has a real shot at owning the next phase of human-computer interaction.”
The Acti team also features CTO Mike Sun, who was the founding technical lead for Baidu’s Yike Album, a cloud-photo platform that scaled to over 10 million daily active users. Junbo Yang serves as CSO, having joined from HashKey Capital where he oversaw dozens of consumer investments.
Acti is currently available for download on both iOS and Android devices.
The Editorial Staff at AIChief is a team of professional content writers with extensive experience in AI and marketing. Founded in 2025, AIChief has quickly grown into the largest free AI resource hub in the industry.