--- title: ShakeSpeak App Helps Text Like Shakespeare description: ShakeSpeak app helps users text like William Shakespeare in honor of the 400th anniversary canonical: https://time.com/4285251/swiftkey-shakespeare-william-400th-birthday/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-07T16:21:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:31:26.662Z og:title: This App Lets Bookworms Text Like William Shakespeare og:description: To text or not to text? og:url: https://time.com/4285251/swiftkey-shakespeare-william-400th-birthday/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt57264067a938d236/69888e32196cf49f2b03b15f/shakespeak-romeo-juliet-quote.png?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: ShakeSpeak - Romeo & Juliet Quote og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This App Lets Bookworms Text Like William Shakespeare twitter:description: To text or not to text? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt57264067a938d236/69888e32196cf49f2b03b15f/shakespeak-romeo-juliet-quote.png?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This App Lets Bookworms Text Like William Shakespeare  by [Olivia B. Waxman](/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Apr 7, 2016 4:21 PM CUT   by [Olivia B. Waxman](/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Apr 7, 2016 4:21 PM CUT [SwiftKey](http://time.com/2857057/swiftkey-free/ "undefined"), known for keyboard apps that predict what users will type next, has launched a Shakespearean one in honor of the 400th anniversary of the playwright’s death. The free ShakeSpeak app, released in partnership with the city’s official visitors guide VisitLondon.com, attempts to turn everything users write in a text message into a line from one of his plays. Below are some examples of what users can expect when they text the following bolded words: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4285251/swiftkey-shakespeare-william-400th-birthday/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4285251/swiftkey-shakespeare-william-400th-birthday/"},"headline":"This App Lets Bookworms Text Like William Shakespeare","datePublished":"2016-04-07T16:21:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:31:26.662Z","description":"In honor of the 400th anniversary of the playwright's death","url":"https://time.com/4285251/swiftkey-shakespeare-william-400th-birthday/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Internet"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt57264067a938d236/69888e32196cf49f2b03b15f/shakespeak-romeo-juliet-quote.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt57264067a938d236/69888e32196cf49f2b03b15f/shakespeak-romeo-juliet-quote.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"ShakeSpeak - Romeo & Juliet Quote","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4285251/swiftkey-shakespeare-william-400th-birthday/","name":"This App Lets Bookworms Text Like William Shakespeare"}}]}] ```