Singapore-based startup Acti has launched an agentic keyboard for iOS and Android that does more than predict the next word: it can perform actions for the user inside the apps they already use, such as email, messaging, and social media.
According to founder and CEO Young Wang, the product tackles a common pain point for people who switch between multiple apps to get AI assistance. In an email interview with TechCrunch, Wang said 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 described that layer as foundational for the next era of AI agents.
How it works and examples
Acti can inject relevant information and take actions directly into conversations. For example, it can suggest a nearby restaurant in a chat about where to eat, or share a live stock price when a security is mentioned — tasks that would otherwise require switching to a search engine or separate AI app and returning to the original conversation.
A central feature is Skills: custom shortcuts that users can assign to a single key to trigger multi-step tasks automatically — for instance, translating a message or instantly sending a meeting link. The app ships with built-in Skills such as a "T" key for long-press translation and a "C" key that generates a meeting link.
Users do not need to code to create a Skill; they can describe the desired action in plain language and Acti builds it. The company says early access testers created more than 1,000 Skills in less than two weeks. Skills can be private or published to a Skills marketplace where others’ creations are discoverable (examples include Skills for real-time World Cup data or Polymarket links). Acti plans for the Skill Hub to potentially support monetization in the future.
Technology and privacy model
Under the hood, Acti runs on Google’s Gemini models, chosen for their balance of intelligence, speed, reliability, multilingual performance, and cost efficiency. Gemini is also suited to powering the multi-step operations that Skills perform.
Acti follows a local-first approach: by default, a user’s personal context stays on their device for privacy. The company says the app does not access or store private messages, conversations, or personal context unless a user explicitly invokes a feature that requires external processing.
Team, funding and business plan
Young Wang previously spent a decade at Baidu, where he grew Facemoji Keyboard to more than 300 million daily active users. He says the arrival of large language models changed how he viewed text: it became a carrier of intent that could be translated directly into actions — prompting a rethink of the keyboard as an interface.
Acti’s leadership 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, and CSO Junbo Yang, who joined from HashKey Capital where he led consumer investments.
The company has just closed $5.3 million in seed funding in a round led by BITKRAFT Ventures. Jonathan Huang, Partner at BITKRAFT Ventures, said: "We backed Acti because this team has a real shot at owning the next phase of human-computer interaction." Acti plans to monetize through subscriptions that offer access to more advanced AI models, higher daily usage limits, and other premium features.
Availability
Acti is currently available on iOS and Android.
Why it matters
By embedding agentic AI into the keyboard, Acti aims to make intent-driven actions immediate and reduce the friction of app switching, while attempting to keep personal context on-device through a local-first design.
