TouchPal, Chinese keyboard app by Chinese developer CooTek, today announced a strategic partnership with Yahoo that puts Yahoo’s mobile search capabilities into the hands of TouchPal’s Android users.
Named “Yahoo Search in Apps”, the new feature allows TouchPal users to access Yahoo’s search engine directly from the keyboard app without the need to switch to a browser. Search results include links, images and videos, as well as the ability to translate text into 40 languages. What’s more, whether your’e using the TouchPal Keyboard with email, text or any other app, anyone can share a link from the search results, with just one click.
Yahoo Search in Apps will be released initially in the U.S. to give more than 16 million TouchPal Android users in the country direct access to Yahoo Search through the mobile keyboard.
“Since we launched Yahoo Search in Apps at our mobile developer conference in February, we’ve been actively expanding our partnerships in this area,” said Ian Weingarten, senior vice president, Head of Global Partnerships at Yahoo. “We’re excited to integrate Yahoo search into TouchPal’s keyboard to enhance their users’ experience and provide new monetization opportunities.”
The partnership is a development of TouchPal’s plan to deliver feature-rich experiences to users beyond keyboard functionality. “TouchPal is moving towards entertaining and personalized features. We consider input solutions not just a tool, but also a bridge to connect people,” said Karl Zhang, co-founder of the company in a preview interview with TechNode.
TouchPal, which has accumulated more than 250 million users globally as of March this year, has added a bunch of new features to engage users, including a collection of more than 800 emoji characters.
Integrating new features has been trendy for keyboard apps to differentiate themselves, Israeli mobile keyboard app Ginger is also adding functions ranging from one-to-one video, casual games to news to the app.
In addition to overseas market, which accounts for a dominating part of the company’s business, it looks that TouchPal is leveraging its focus to China market in recent years with the launch of local service platform TouchPal Life, TouchPal Contact, free voice calling service TouchPal Call.
Image credit: TouchPal