Google, Inc. wants a bigger slice of the iOS search pie and is going about it a sneaky way by developing a keyboard for iOS devices, according to a report Tuesday.

The Verge claims that the search giant has been developing the keyboard for months and that it is “visually distinct” from Google’s Android keyboard.

The keyboard is said to support gesture typing, something the standard Apple designed iOS keyboard does not, and includes “a variety of search options” including a Google logo that a user can tap to bring up a websearch, as well as perhaps more interestingly “distinct buttons for pictures and GIF searches.”

Employees at Google have been testing the new keyboard for months, presumably those traitors within the company who use an iPhone instead of Google’s own Android phones such as the Nexus range, or those made by companies such as Samsung Electronic Co. Ltd.

Keyboard wars?

Apple first added support for third-party keyboards in iOS 8, a feature that saw many well know Android keyboard makers jump on board in short shrift, including the likes of Swype, SwiftKey, and Fleksy.

Since that time though the keyboard market has taken a strange turn after Microsoft Corp. acquired SwiftKey in February; Microsoft ostensibly acquired the company to obtain the artificially intelligent predictive platform powering the service, but likewise it has continued to provide the core SwiftKey keyboard as well, meaning that it immediately has a stake in the third party keyboard market.

Microsoft, since abandoning its Windows Phone first push has taken on Google in providing multiple services everywhere, and although Google isn’t exactly missing out when it comes to offering iOS apps, a keyboard would be a logical missing link if it was trying to provide as many alternative apps to Apple’s standard apps as is possible on iOS devices.

There is also the question of search, with some numbers floating around suggesting as many as half of all smartphone users don’t use search on a daily basis; Google’s bread and butter is search but with much of the world switching to internet access by mobile first, and in many cases mobile only, they need to find ways to get more people to use search, but whether a Google keyboard with search buttons would help is anyone’s guess at this stage.

When the keyboard would be made available was not disclosed.

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