Keyboards & Input Methods

Most users probably live with the pre-installed keyboard app. Either because they are satisfied with it, that they are not aware of alternatives, or that the alternatives known to them are not really alternatives to them. Only few will know all available keyboard apps (even I don't). But even if the following list is far from being complete, they might prove helpful to the one or other.

Important to consider is that such a keyboard app is aware of all input done with it (well, that's its job, right?). Theoretically it could record all input (including passwords and other sensitive data). In case it also holds the permission to access the network, one could imagine some evil things. So better think twice if there are concerns to consider!

The permission to read/write user dictionaries is fully legit here, however – as that's what keyboards use for spell checking and „predictive typing“.

Keyboards supporting Swipe, Type, and Voice

2024-08-27

Microsoft SwiftKey AI Keyboard (4.5@4,209,649) Ǥ 23 3 Datenschutz-Test 7/2019
Gboard - the Google Keyboard (4.4@15,114,657) Ǥ 20 1
Bobble AI Keyboard Memes, Gifs (4@454,398) Ǥ 27 8
Smart Keyboard Pro (3.3@22,208; ~EUR 2.25) 6 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ dictionaries available for many languages

Keyboards for Typing

2024-08-27

Tiny Keyboard (5@191) 0 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2022-10-09 Github
Minuum Keyboard + Smart Emoji (4.5@57; ~EUR 3.50) Ǥ 10 1 LastUpdate: 2017-02-18
Technical Keyboard (4.4@2,748) 10 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2017-09-24
Unexpected Keyboard (4.4@2,348) 2 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github
Simple Keyboard (4.3@10,007) 1 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github; Vorstellung 8/2019 | 11/2023
OpenBoard (4.3@2,539) 4 LastUpdate: 2022-11-03 Github; Review 6/2021; Vorstellung 11/2023
Typewise Offline Keyboard (4.3@1,998; ~EUR 25.00) 3 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Vorstellung 6/2016
Keyboard Designer: Keyboard (4.3@1,026) Ǥ 3 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Vorstellung 8/2020
BeHe Keyboard (4.3@141) 1 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2018-04-04
Hacker’s Keyboard (4.2@60,391) 3 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2018-12-07 Github; Video Review 6/2018; not only for hackers
Big Font - Big Text Size (4.2@26,625) Ǥ 11 3
Deutsche Tastatur (4@3,100) 0 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2021-12-03
Compass Keyboard (4@56) 3 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2018-03-16 Github; International keyboard
A.I.type Tablet Keyboard Free (3.9@14,250) Ǥ 8 3 LastUpdate: 2019-10-07
Indic Keyboard (3.8@8,669) 6 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ GitLab
Simple Keyboard (3.8@3,940) Ǥ 7 9 Github
1C Big Keyboard (3.7@23,486) Ǥ 10 10
Fleksy fast emoji keyboard app (3.5@267,594) Ǥ 18 6 Wikipedia EN
Big Buttons Keyboard Standard (3.4@9,390) 1 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2013-12-18
DroidTR IME (1@89) 2 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2022-08-22 GitLab
Thumb-Key (0@0; ~EUR 18.00) 1 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github; Kurzvorstellung 8/2023
K9Keyboard (0@0) 1 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github; T9 keyboard
T16Fling (0@0) 0 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2021-04-20 GitLab
HeliBoard (0@0) 6 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github; fork of OpenBoard
Fossify Keyboard (0@0) 2 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github

Keyboards for Typing & Swiping

2024-08-27

Kika Keyboard-AI Emojis、Themes (4.5@339,092) Ǥ 27 12
GO Keyboard Lite - Many Theme (4.2@2,621,899) Ǥ 19 13 LastUpdate: 2021-06-01
Grammarly-AI Writing Assistant (4.2@235,528) Ǥ 7 2
Typewise Custom Keyboard (4@13,986) Ǥ 8 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Intro 2/2020
Ginger Keyboard - Emoji, GIFs (3.9@185,871) Ǥ 21 12 Video Demo 3/2015; spell and grammar check
MultiLing Keyboard (3.9@44) 5 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2015-08-26 / Multiling O Keyboard + emoji (3.9@35,344) 4 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2020-09-03
AnySoftKeyboard (3.6@26,500) 6 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2022-01-14 Github; Wiki; MobilSicher Empfehlung 10/2019; Vorstellung 6/2020; Testbericht 10/2023
Chrooma Keyboard - RGB & Emoji (2.8@179,534) Ǥ 22 9 LastUpdate: 2020-06-07 Kurzvorstellung 2/2016; Intro 6/2016
FlorisBoard (0@0) 1 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2022-06-17 / FlorisBoard Beta (0@0) 3 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github; Review 8/2021 / Github

Alternative Input Ideas

2024-08-27

mazec3 (jp) -Handwriting (5@566; ~EUR 9.00) Ǥ 6 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ / mazec3 Handwriting Recognition (3@179; ~EUR 14.00) Ǥ 6 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$
Graffiti Pro for Android (4.1@1,035) 4 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ / Graffiti for Android (3.9@3,262) 2 LastUpdate: 2013-03-13 Like in the good-old Palm days
Selvy PenScript (4@187) 5 1
EVA Facial Mouse (3.6@25,352) Ǥ 9 5 LastUpdate: 2019-11-21 Github; emulate mouse cursor by eye tracking
Dotterel (0@0) 4 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github; stenographic input
Fcitx5 for Android (0@0) 2 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github

More crazy ideas can be found in the category Personal Assistants (Competition to Siri & Google Now).

Remote Keyboards

2024-08-27

… can be found in the category Control your Droid from your Computer

Other Keyboards

2024-08-26

Irregular Expressions Keyboard (4.8@107) 2 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github; write expressive messages in various font styles
Stroke Input Method (筆畫輸入法) (4.4@14) 0 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github; minimalist Chinese keyboard
Brailliac: Braille Keyboard (4.3@188) 2 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github
kboard (4.2@1,605) 4 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2022-02-09 Github; XDA 2/2019; Intro 2/2019; a keyboard to end conversations
8vim Keyboard (4.2@16) 2 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github; vim-like keyboard and editor
Trime (4@393) 12 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github; Chinese IME
NovaKey - Keyboard (Beta) (3.5@892) 5 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2016-06-23
MessagEase Keyboard (2.5@8,213) 8 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$
YidKey KD (0@0) 0 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2019-01-22 Github; Yiddish keyboard
Secret Encrypted Keyboard (0@0) 1 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github; Keyboard for secure E2EE communication
Sayboard (0@0) 6 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github; Testbericht 10/2023; free & libre voice input IME („keyboard“)
Czech Diacritic Keyboard (0@0) 15 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2019-06-19 Github
FutharkBoard (0@0) 0 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2022-09-09 Github
Otobi Keyboard (0@0) 4 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2020-12-18 Github
Unistroke Keyboard (0@0) 1 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2023-02-12 Github; like Palm's Grafitty
Sithakuru (0@0) 1 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Codeberg; Libre Sinhala Keyboard
BlitzTypeKeyboard (0@0) 0 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2019-10-18 Github; custom keyboard with special keys for the WOT Blitz game
Fcitx5 for Android (Clipboard Filter Plugin) (0@0) 0 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github
FlickBoard (0@0) 1 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github
Sithakuru (0@0) 1 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Codeberg; Sinhala keyboard

Keyboard Helpers

2024-09-02

Free Physical Keyboard (5@294) $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2018-10-28
Nabla : Type Math Symbols (5@19) 1 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github; easily type math symbols
More Physical Keyboard Layouts (4.9@882) 0 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github
Keyboard Switcher (4.6@1,122) 8 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ GitLab
物理キーボード配列変更 (+親指Ctrl) [日本語配列] (4.6@38) 0 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ / 物理キーボード配列変更 (+親指Ctrl) [英語配列] (4.6@37) 1 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github; Caps to Ctrl (keyboard layout) / Github
Guileless Bopomofo Keyboard (4.4@59) 2 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github
Key Mapper GUI Keyboard (4.3@1,340) 5 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github
Hoplite Polytonic Greek Keyboa (3.9@293) 1 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github; extension for polytonic Greek input
External Keyboard Helper Pro (3.8@3,622; ~EUR 1.75) 7 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ configure your external keyboard
Inputting Plus: Ctrl + Z/F/C/V (3.7@1,375) Ǥ 6 1 LastUpdate: 2019-01-22
Full colemak (0@0) 0 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2020-12-07 Github; keyboard layout with dead keys etc. for physical keyboards
Neo2 External Keyboard (0@0) 0 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2021-03-24 Github; Neo2-Layout when using a physical keyboard
Keyboard Layout Companion (0@0) 3 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github; visualise and generate images of alternative keyboard layouts
Traditional T9 (0@0) 5 Github; T9 IME for Android devices with hardware keypad

Further Readings:

Best Keyboard Apps for Android (9/2023)
5 best keyboard apps for Android (4/2022)
5 Best Private Android Keyboards You Can Trust + 3 Expert Tips (6/2020 - 3/2023)
Android-Apps ersetzen: Tastatur (2/2020 - 10/2023)
Video: Tastatur-Apps: Was sie über Sie erfahren und welche App wir empfehlen (10/2019)
How to Connect a USB Keyboard to Your Android Phone (7/2019 - 9/2023)
Best keyboard apps for Android (4/2019 - 3/2023)
The Best Free and Open-Source Android Keyboard Apps (1/2018 - 10/2023)
Leserfrage: Empfehlenswerte Tastatur-App für Android (12/2017)
Die besten Android-Tastaturen: Swype, SwiftKey und Co. im Überblick (12/2014 - 5/2021)
Best keyboard for Android apps (9/2014 - 3/2023)

2024-09-02

IzzyOnDroid