A new startup is reimagining one of the most essential tools on your phone: the keyboard. On Tuesday, Singapore-based Acti launched what it calls an "agentic keyboard" for iOS and Android. Unlike standard keyboards that only suggest the next word, Acti can perform actions on your behalf, bringing AI capabilities directly into the apps you already use—email, messaging, social media, and more.

According to Young Wang, founder and CEO of Acti, this solves a common frustration for anyone switching between multiple apps to get AI assistance. "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 said. "That is the foundation the entire AI-agent era will be built on."

The launch reflects a different approach to how consumers might embrace AI. Instead of opening separate AI chatbots, Acti embeds AI into the interfaces people already use every day.

For example, if a friend asks for a nearby restaurant recommendation, Acti (short for "action") can drop a local suggestion directly into the conversation. Or, if someone mentions a stock, Acti can share its live price right in the chat. Normally, you'd need to switch to a search engine or another AI app, then return to the conversation—a time-consuming process.

Behind the scenes, Acti is powered by Google's Gemini models. Wang explained that Gemini was chosen for its balance of intelligence, speed, reliability, multilingual performance, and cost efficiency. Gemini also supports one of Acti's key features, called Skills, which function like custom shortcuts. Users can program a single key on their keyboard to trigger multi-step tasks automatically—such as translating a message or instantly sharing a meeting link.

Importantly, Acti is built around a local-first model. This means users' personal context stays on their device by default, protecting 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.

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

Acti's business model is still evolving, but the company plans to generate revenue through subscriptions. These will offer users access to more advanced AI models, higher daily usage limits, and other premium features.

The app comes with several built-in Skills. For instance, the "T" Skill lets you translate a message to another language by long-pressing the T key. Another Skill, "C," automatically generates a meeting link. Users don't need coding knowledge to create a Skill—they can simply describe what they want in plain language, and Acti builds it. Before launch, early testers created over 1,000 Skills in less than two weeks.

These Skills can be kept private or shared publicly in a Skills marketplace, where users can find pre-built options like real-time World Cup data or Polymarket links. In the future, this Skill Hub could also offer additional monetization opportunities.

Acti recently raised $3 million in seed funding, 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, Partner at BITKRAFT Ventures, about the investment.

The Acti team 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 on the team is CSO Junbo Yang, who joined from HashKey Capital, where he led dozens of consumer investments.

Acti is currently available for iOS and Android.