In 2003, Mehdi Hasan Khan, a medical student at the time, released a keyboard for public use named Uni Bijoy. How Uni Bijoy eventually evolved into Avro was shared with RTV by Avro team developers Shabab Mustafa and Tanbin Islam Siam.
According to Shabab Mustafa, the keyboard was initially called Uni Bijoy, and several other names were considered in the early stages. After the first two releases, Mehdi Hasan Khan decided to rename it. He chose the word Avro, meaning "sky," from a dictionary—symbolising openness and freedom, just like the software itself, which was made freely available to everyone. The name resonated with the users, and thus, Uni Bijoy became Avro.
Although they had opportunities to earn millions, the young developers chose to distribute Avro entirely free of charge. For over 22 years, a small group of selfless individuals, avoiding the limelight, have maintained, updated, and preserved the software.
Speaking to RTV, Shabab Mustafa and Tanbin Islam Siam emphasised that they never had any commercial intentions with Avro.
This year, Mehdi Hasan Khan, the founder of Avro Keyboard, was honoured with the Ekushey Padak, the country's second-highest civilian award. When contacted, Mehdi expressed his wish not to accept the award alone. Following discussions with the cultural advisor, it was decided that Mehdi, along with three of his colleagues who played vital roles in Avro’s development, would be collectively honoured.
In their interview with RTV, Shabab Mustafa and Tanbin Siam also shared how they became part of the Avro team.
Shabab said that after the software's release, as user numbers grew, they joined the project to help troubleshoot various technical issues. At that time, all of them were still students.
Avro is a free and open-source software, meaning anyone can use and distribute it without cost. Its ease of use is such that even children can learn it within an hour on a mobile device. Mehdi Hasan Khan, a doctor and programmer, is one of the key creators behind this phonetic keyboard.
Recently, in a social media post, Mehdi shared that when he first began working on Avro in 2003, neither he nor the software was widely known. He later created an online forum to help users solve technical problems. As Unicode technology was still new, there were many challenges.
Gradually, people began to join the forum with their issues, and Mehdi, along with his growing team—including Shabab and Siam—worked to resolve them.
Thus began Avro's journey. Overcoming countless obstacles, Avro rose to become the most popular Bangla phonetic keyboard software.
