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11 best Android keyboards for all kinds of typists

If the stock keyboard on your phone isn't good, we'll show you the best Android keyboards to help you type even faster.
By
March 2, 2023
Fleksy best Android keyboards
Joe Hindy / Android Authority

For most people, the default keyboard on your phone does everything you need. However, some folks want more customization, more features, or they’re looking for something that not everybody needs. Enter the third-party Android keyboard. These have improved dramatically over the years. However, most of the more interesting competitors in this space dropped off the map. We also lost Swype due to it closing down and TouchPal over a malware scandal.

These days, most people either stick with the stock keyboard or use Gboard or SwiftKey. This space simply isn’t as competitive as it used to be, so the options aren’t as plentiful as they used to be. Here are the best third-party Android keyboards.

The best Android keyboards for all types of typists

1C Big Keyboard

Price: Free / $1.99 per month / $9 once

1C Big Keyboard is something a little bit different. It’s a keyboard that is intentionally large with a bigger font for older folks and other people who may have failing eyesight. It uses most of the screen in its default setting, but you can swipe up and give the keyboard 100% of your screen if you need to. Some other features include bigger keys for fewer typos and there are some customization options. It can be a bit slow on occasion and we’d prefer if it had some extra optimization, at least for lower-end devices. Otherwise, it’s a good option for the older crowd.

AI.Type

Price: Free / $2.99

AI Type Keyboard screenshot 2023

AI.Type has been around for a while, and it’s still a very good keyboard. The app includes thousands of themes, hundreds of emoji, and plenty of customization options. You can even make and share your own theme. In terms of usability, it boasts swipe typing, a number row, voice typing, and more. The keyboard ticks the boxes. In practice, it’s not quite as good as something like Gboard. The swipe doesn’t always get the word right, and it feels a bit clunkier. You do get used to it over time, but swipe typists may want something a bit more accurate.

Facemoji Emoji Keyboard

Price: Free with in-app purchases

Facemoji Emoji Keyboard focuses a little more on the customization part of keyboards than pure functionality. It does a pretty good job of it too. The app supports 5,000 emojis, emoticons, stickers, and other such things. There is also support for GIFs. Some other features include 1,500 themes, 50 fonts, a game mode for some mobile games, and more. In terms of typing, power users may be left disappointed. It has the basics and the functionality is okay. It’s just not as good as Gboard or SwiftKey in those areas.

Fleksy

Price: Free / Up to $2.99

Fleksy screenshot 2020
Joe Hindy / Android Authority

Fleksy is one of the most popular Android keyboards. It features all of the basics, including swipe and gesture controls, web search, GIF and meme support, themes, extensions, and more. Some of the themes are free. However, several cost money as well. Thankfully, they weren’t too expensive. Pinterest bought the company and took the developers. However, another startup began development on the app again. The keyboard is totally free and most of the in-app purchases are just themes.

Gboard

Price: Free

Gboard screenshot 2022

Gboard is Google’s official stock keyboard. It comes with a lot of basic features such as auto-correction, multi-lingual typing, and various customization features. Its claim to fame, though, is that Google Search is built-in. That means you can conduct searches without leaving the keyboard space. There is also a GIF search, voice typing, and Google Translate. Google adds features to this keyboard on a fairly frequent basis. Thus, it isn’t quite the minimal, simple keyboard it used to be. However, it’s still decent.

Grammarly

Price: Free

Grammarly screenshot 2023

Grammarly is one of the newer Android keyboards. It started life as a Chrome extension and it corrected your grammar as you typed. The Android keyboard version aims to do the same thing. It checks your grammar and spelling as well as punctuation. It’s newer, so it’s very much still in development. We expect more features to come with future updates. You still get a very clean-looking keyboard that helps correct grammar mistakes in the meantime. We also like how it explains your corrections if you want it to so that you learn from them as well. The only downside is that the app has some typing bugs that we wish the developers would fix since some of them have been around for a while. Otherwise, the app is free and it does help when it works right.

Microsoft SwiftKey

Price: Free

Microsoft SwiftKey Keyboard screenshot 2023

SwiftKey is definitely among the best Android keyboards ever. It has top-of-the-line prediction and auto-correction along with gesture typing, cloud syncing so all of your devices can stay up to date, themes, keyboard customization, a number row, and more. It also has above-average language support with over 100 languages supported. The keyboard and all of its features are free but you’ll have to pay for most of the themes. The keyboard was purchased by Microsoft a couple of years ago, but it still works as it did. The app is also completely free.

Multiling O Keyboard

Price: Free

Multiling O Keyboard is the one-stop-shop if you need multiple languages. In fact, this keyboard app supports over 200 languages at the time of this writing which is more than pretty much every other Android keyboard. On top of superior language support, you’ll get gesture typing, the ability to set up a PC-style keyboard layout, keyboard resizing and repositioning, themes, emoji, various layouts, and the all-important number row. It’s a powerful option for you multi-linguists out there. More and more keyboards support more and more languages. However, nobody does it quite as well as Multiling.

OpenBoard

Price: Free

OpenBoard screenshot 2022

OpenBoard is a nice keyboard for privacy fans. It’s 100% open-source and based on the AOSP keyboard. It removes Google binaries so you don’t need any Google Play Services for this to work. In terms of functionality, it’s pretty average. You get some text correction, some basic themes, and support for stuff like emoji. However, you miss out on the extra features you would normally get in Gboard. It’s free to use and you can find the open-source code in the Google Play description.

Simple Keyboard

Price: Free

Simple Keyboard screenshot 2023

Simple Keyboard is the most minimal Android keyboard on the list. It only comes with the basics. That includes the keyboard, a few customization settings, and a few themes. The only permission it has is vibration and that’s for haptic feedback while typing. This is the one you want if you just want a basic, bare-bones keyboard. It also has no ads, no premium version, no in-app purchases, and it’s open-source.

It requires only the bare minimum in terms of permissions as well. Just make sure you’re okay with not having the features from more modern keyboards. This one is even simpler than OpenBoard, so it’ll be up to you to figure out which one you like better.


Yandex Keyboard

Price: Free

Yandex screenshot 2023

Yandex Keyboard is a serviceable keyboard. It includes the usual modern features like tons of emoji and stickers. There is also a built-in translator for multi-lingual users, a voice input, and support for 70 languages. You also get at heme builder, auto correct, and the app claims to use machine learning to learn how you type so it gets smarter the more you use it. It seems to tick all of the boxes and worked well in our testing. However, Yandex is a Russian company, and that doesn’t evoke a ton of trust from a lot of users. We included this as the 11th option in a list of ten because the keyboard does work very well, but if privacy is a concern, maybe skip this one.


If we missed any of the best Android keyboards, tell us about them in the comments! You can also click here to check out our latest Android app and game lists.
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