Gboard is the default keyboard for Pixel smartphones and many devices that use stock Android, but it’s not the only option out there. Recently, Gboard has been swept up in a privacy controversy highlighting how your data is used by Google for its own training and collection. The data that Google collects can be intercepted and tied to individual users. Luckily, you can disable some of those data-sharing settings.
But what if, down the line, Gboard changes its policy or privacy settings? Or we learn about additional ways Google sneakily collects your data from your keyboard? If that concerns you, consider using an open-source keyboard that runs completely on device, no data servers required. Unlike closed software, security experts can audit open-source programs, so vulnerabilities are found and patched quite quickly. As it happens, there are two solid open-source alternatives to Gboard. One is so like Gboard, you won’t even miss it. The second is as private as a keyboard gets.
FUTO Keyboard is a direct Gboard replacement
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
FUTO Keyboard is designed to be a direct Gboard replacement. It looks like Gboard, and it works like Gboard. But underneath, it’s completely open-source, free, and private. By default, none of your keystrokes leave your device.
FUTO includes on-device AI models for text prediction and voice typing. The text prediction model works completely offline and doesn’t use any online servers. In my testing, it kept up with my typing, and the suggestions were more or less what you’d expect. For voice typing, the app uses a lightweight Whisper-based model, also running on-device, with no servers involved. In my testing, I found the default model to be a bit underwhelming when compared to Gboard. Downloading the highest-tier model resolved this issue, though, and I saw voice typing results similar to Gboard. (The English-244 voice model is a 280MB download.)
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
FUTO gets a lot more fun when you start customizing the settings and the layout. You can resize the keyboard to make it larger, add a permanent numbers row to the top, an arrow bar, and change the theme to your liking. There are also fine-tuning settings for users who like adjusting every bit of how their keyboard works. For example, there is a section on Long-Press Keys that lets you customize how the backspace long-press gesture works.
In my testing, I found that the FUTO keyboard offers a smoother, more reliable typing experience compared to Gboard. A small example is the spacebar gesture. In Gboard, you can move the cursor by swiping on the spacebar, but it’s a bit confusing for me. You hold it for a split second, and then swipe. In FUTO, swiping on the spacebar instantly moves the cursor, every single time. The downside to being completely private is, of course, that you lose out on cross-device support. Your personal dictionary, or clipboard, can’t sync between all your devices. While Gboard is a more complete package, FUTO’s privacy features do make up for that loss.
HeliBoard is the Gboard alternative for security purists
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
HeliBoard has a rich open-source pedigree. It’s based on the old OpenBoard project, which itself was based on the pure Android AOSP keyboard, the original stock Android keyboard.
What do you think so far?
The times have changed, though, and HeliBoard has kept up, without sacrificing its open-source roots. The app promises a zero-exposure experience, asking for no network permissions whatsoever. As this is a purist’s keyboard, there are no AI features to speak of: no LLM transformer for text prediction, no AI voice typing model.
That said, all the basic features you’d expect from an Android keyboard are all here. You can add an optional number row to the top, and there’s support for gesture typing, along with an on-device clipboard (which can be disabled). You can customize the appearance as well. You can resize the keyboard, bring back the old Holo keyboard style, change icons, and change the color of the keyboard. (You can even use an image as the background.)
The only caveat to using HeliBoard is that it’s not available in the Google Play Store. Instead, you’ll have to download it from the F-Droid third-party app store that specializes in securely hosting free and open-source apps. But that’s easy to do, and once installed, you can explore other useful open-source apps like NewPipe, my preferred way of watching YouTube ad-free on Android.
