Acti embeds AI agents directly into smartphone keyboards

A new startup aims to bring AI to the software you use most: your smartphone's keyboard.

On Tuesday, Singapore-based Acti (short for "action") launched an agentic keyboard for iOS and Android. Unlike traditional keyboards that only predict your next word, this one can take actions on your behalf, integrating AI tools directly into the apps you already use—email, messaging, social media, and more.

According to Young Wang, Acti's founder and CEO, this solves a common frustration for anyone juggling multiple apps: users constantly have to switch between apps just to get AI assistance.

Image Credits:Acti

"Today's AI agents are fundamentally limited because user context remains 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 added. "That is the foundation the entire AI-agent era will be built on."

The launch reflects a different approach to how consumers will ultimately adopt AI. Instead of asking users to open separate AI chatbots, Acti demonstrates how AI can be embedded into the interfaces we already use.

Image Credits:Acti

For instance, if a friend wants to know where to eat nearby, Acti can drop a local recommendation. Or if someone mentions a stock in your conversation, Acti can share the live price right there in the chat. Currently, you'd have to switch to a search engine or another AI app to get that information, then return to the conversation app—a time-consuming process.

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 ideal for one of Acti's key features, called Skills, which act like custom shortcuts: users can program a single key on their keyboard to automatically trigger multi-step tasks—for example, translating a message or instantly sharing a meeting link (see examples below).

Importantly, Acti is built on a local-first model, meaning users' personal context remains on their device by default to protect privacy. The company says the app does not access or store private messages, conversations, or personal context unless the user explicitly activates a feature that requires external processing.

Image Credits:Acti

Wang says he was inspired to work on a new keyboard for the AI era after spending a decade at Baidu, where he grew 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 interface for the AI era is deeply exciting," he added.

Acti's business model is still taking shape, but the company plans to generate revenue through subscriptions that provide users with more advanced AI models, higher daily usage limits, and other premium features.

Image Credits:Acti

The app already ships with some built-in Skills, like "T," which lets you translate a message to another language by long-pressing the letter on your keyboard. Another Skill, "C," will generate a meeting link.

Users don't need to know how to code to create a Skill, the company points out. Instead, you can simply describe what you want in plain language, and Acti builds it. Before the launch, early access testers created over 1,000 Skills in less than two weeks.

These Skills can be kept private for your own use or shared publicly in a Skills marketplace, where you can find pre-built Skills—such as those for accessing real-time World Cup data or Polymarket links, among others. In the future, this Skill Hub could also offer additional monetization opportunities.

Image Credits:Acti

The company also exclusively shared with TechCrunch that it has just closed $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, a 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 he led dozens of consumer investments.

Acti is currently available on iOS and Android.