Best Keyboard Apps for Android (2026)

Gboard is the keyboard we hand most people first, partly because it is already installed on most phones and partly because it just works. Glide typing is fast and forgiving, the built in Google search and translate are genuinely handy, and voice typing is the best on Android. It suits almost everyone. It is completely free with no ads, and in our testing the way it learns your slang without ever feeling creepy kept it on as our daily driver.

SwiftKey, now owned by Microsoft, built its name on autocorrect that actually understands context, and it still nails the next word you meant to type. It suits bilingual typers especially, since it handles several languages at once without you switching anything. It is free with no ads, and the rich theme store makes it fun to personalize. We pit it head to head with Gboard in our SwiftKey versus Gboard breakdown if you are torn between the two giants.

This is SwiftKey with Copilot baked in, letting you rewrite a message in a friendlier tone or draft a quick reply without leaving the text field. It suits people who already lean on AI to polish their writing. It is free, and you sign in with a Microsoft account to use the smart features. We found the tone shift button surprisingly useful for softening a blunt work message, though you can ignore the AI panel entirely and just enjoy the excellent prediction underneath.

FlorisBoard is an open source keyboard built from the ground up with privacy in mind, so nothing you type leaves your phone. It suits anyone who wants modern features without the data collection that comes with the big names. It is completely free and ad free. Glide typing arrived recently and works well, and in our testing the clean Material You styling and total lack of permissions made it the easiest privacy pick to recommend to a wary friend.

OpenBoard is a stripped back, fully offline keyboard based on the old Android open source one, with zero tracking and no internet permission at all. It suits minimalists and the privacy conscious who do not need swipe typing or fancy themes. It is free and open source. The layout feels instantly familiar if you remember stock Android, and we liked that it does exactly one job, typing, without ever phoning home or nagging you to upgrade.

HeliBoard is the keyboard privacy fans have been waiting for, a maintained fork of OpenBoard that adds optional glide typing through a separate library and keeps everything offline. It suits people who loved OpenBoard but missed swiping. It is free, open source, and has no internet permission by default. In our testing it felt like the best of both worlds, with multilingual typing and clipboard history that the older offline keyboards never offered.

Typewise ditches the usual cramped rows for a honeycomb layout of large hexagonal keys, which sounds odd until you stop fat fingering every other letter. It suits anyone with bigger thumbs or a habit of typos. It is free with a Pro tier for extra features, and it processes everything on device for privacy. There is a learning curve over the first day or two, but we noticed our error rate genuinely drop once the new key shapes clicked into place.

Fleksy is a fast, gesture driven keyboard where you swipe to delete, add punctuation, or jump between words without lifting your thumb far. It suits speed typers and people who love shortcuts. It is free, with mini apps and GIFs built right into the bar. The compact footprint frees up screen space, and in our testing its autocorrect kept pace even when we typed sloppily, which is exactly what you want when you are firing off quick replies.

Grammarly puts a full grammar and clarity checker right under your thumbs, flagging mistakes and suggesting cleaner phrasing as you type anywhere on your phone. It suits students, professionals, and anyone who fires off important emails on the go. The keyboard is free, with a Premium tier unlocking deeper tone and rewrite suggestions. We found it caught the kind of clumsy sentence you write when rushing, making it a smart pick if your phone doubles as a work device.

Simple Keyboard is exactly what it says, a tiny offline keyboard with no permissions, no themes to speak of, and nothing to track you. It suits people who want the lightest possible footprint or a backup keyboard that just types. It is free and open source. There is no swipe and no autocorrect, which is the whole point, and we kept it around as a trustworthy fallback for entering passwords and sensitive text without a third party watching.

Chrooma is the keyboard for people who want their typing surface to look as good as the rest of their setup, shifting color to match the app you are in. It suits theme lovers who still want solid prediction underneath. It is free with a Pro unlock for the full color palette and emoji tweaks. The adaptive theming is the headline, and we found the night mode that dims automatically genuinely easier on the eyes during late night messaging.

Unexpected Keyboard packs symbols, numbers, and special characters into corner swipes on each key, so power users and coders reach everything without flipping layouts. It suits programmers, terminal users, and anyone tired of hunting for brackets. It is free, open source, and fully offline with no permissions. The swipe in eight directions trick takes practice, but once it sticks we found typing a command line or a snippet on a phone far less painful than usual.