Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8.1 release is starting to look like a fairly major update. While the company is overhauling lots of minor features, Microsoft is also adding in some visual changes that have not yet been uncovered in a recent software development kit leak. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans have revealed to The Verge that the company is building a Swype-like keyboard directly into Windows Phone 8.1. UnleashThePhones appears to have a video of the new keyboard, complete with its new prediction engine.

It appears to be very similar to Google's updated Android keyboard. The video shows how words can be picked by swiping over keyboard letters, and how emoticons are suggested when words like "happy" are used. Windows Phone 8.1’s new swipe keyboard can be enabled or disabled with a "type as I flick through letters" setting, and "suggest emoticons" is also an option too. Microsoft is expected to release the final version of Windows Phone 8.1 to developers in early April.