Exclusive: Meet the Indian startup behind Xiaomi’s default keyboard app fighting Google’s monopoly with fast innovation

Bobble started its journey in 2015 as a mobile application for turning selfies into stickers instantly sharable over WhatsApp and the likes. The idea was to make smartphone conversations more expressive. A year later, the New Delhi-based startup launched a dedicated keyboard application called Bobble AI keyboard, to distribute this content and grow its reach.

Starting 2017, Bobble started working with various original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), big and small – the list includes Micromax, Lava, Indus OS, Panasonic and others – and eventually landed into a larger strategic deal with Xiaomi in 2019 to build the Mint keyboard, the default keyboard app seen inside many Mi and Redmi phones currently sold in India and Indonesia (Xiaomi has since partnered with China’s Baidu, so some of its devices also ship with Facemoji by default in the Indian market).