7 Gboard replacements that are faster, smarter, and have more features

Gboard has been my preferred keyboard for years. It has everything I need, including a rich emoji collection, voice input, multilingual support, and smooth glide typing that flows naturally without me thinking hard about it.

It was hard to imagine anything better. Google designed it to work on many Android devices. It erases permission headaches and security issues you might run into with third-party apps.

But I’ve since tried alternatives that outperform Google’s Keyboard in different ways. They’ve adapted to my typing quirks faster and made all the difference in my experience.

If you’ve been looking for something similar, yet able to fix Gboard’s flaws, these options are worth a try.

7

FUTO Keyboard

FUTO Keyboard builds on everything Gboard offers and adds more control. It’s much easier to navigate because of its high-contrast layout and menus.

There’s a setting for almost anything you’d want to change. You can resize the keyboard to fit your hands and adjust how long-press behaves. You’re not stuck with defaults that slow you down.

My favorite feature is its clipboard. Gboard only lets you keep five entries simultaneously, unless you pin them. FUTO lets me keep up to 100 entries for hours, days, months, or indefinitely.

Also, its text prediction is powered by transformer models. They read the full context of whatever you’re typing instead of the last few words to make more natural and accurate suggestions.

6

Fleksy: Fast emoji keyboard app

Although I’m not a fan of Fleksy’s default borderless layout, it has many attractive qualities.

It’s among the most responsive keyboards I’ve tried because of the snappy typing feedback. The interface is bright, and it has interesting animations that add to its personality.

There’s a gallery where you’ll find dozens of free, colorful images to use as your keyboard’s background. My favorite is Chameleon. It literally changes colors based on the app you’re using.

The keyboard’s capabilities broaden with an extension system. Add a built-in GIF search, meme sharing, quick web search with Qwant, YouTube sharing, or travel planning with Skyscanner for broadened capabilities.

Customization options are available to help you tweak keyboard height, padding, and animations to your comfort.

5

CleverType AI Keyboard

Grammar can be tricky, especially in English. Small mistakes in structure or punctuation can change the meaning of what you’re saying.

It’s even harder when you’re typing fast and switching between languages or apps. It’s handy to have the corrections built right into your keyboard.

Instead of copying and pasting your work into Gemini or ChatGPT for rewrites, CleverType supports real-time edits.

If you’ve finished typing, select options under the Fix Grammar or ReWrite sections to clean up your work. Insert the corrections exactly as suggested or humanize the text so it feels more natural and conversational.

If you want to change the tone, you can pick from different angles for formal work emails or casual chats.

4

AnySoftKeyboard

AnySoftKeyboard is a personal tool you can shape to your liking.

You can customize how the keyboard behaves visually and responds to your touch. Adjust swipe distance thresholds, configure volume keys to move the cursor, and perform more tweaks as you see fit.

You can also change the colors to match any app you’re using. For example, if you’re using WhatsApp, the keyboard changes to green.

Emoji selection is permitted, and you’ll choose exactly which categories appear in your keyboard’s panel. Turn off the ones you never use and keep only the ones you like.

More importantly, AnySoftKeyboard is open source. It doesn’t require an account to unlock features.

3

Yandex Keyboard

Use Yandex if you want a keyboard with a mini search engine inside your chat windows. You can browse the web for answers, images, or news.

Translation is another strong feature. Type in different languages and see them converted to your chosen target language.

The prediction engine is context-aware and understands the sentence you’re building. It offers suggestions and completes entire phrases for you. The layout keeps all these tools within reach.

Voice typing works well enough that you can speak for long stretches without falling behind. You can even pause naturally to get a full stop instead of having to say it yourself.

If you mostly prefer hands-free typing, the combination of tools the keyboard offers makes it a must-have.

2

Typewise Custom Keyboard

Typewise’s layout is hexagonal. Each honeycomb cell has a wider surface area, which reduces the chance of hitting the wrong letter. The key you meant to hit still registers, even if your tap isn’t perfectly centered. The design works well for bigger thumbs.

It has a bit of a learning curve because of the unconventional design. But there’s a tutorial and typing game to help you familiarize yourself with keys quicker. You’ll guide a rocket into space by pressing the correct keys.

If you find the keyboard stressful, switch to the traditional QWERTY layout in its settings menu. QWERTZ and AZERTY layouts are also available. Other layouts and features are locked behind a Pro subscription.

1

OpenBoard valencià

Not everyone owns a flagship with large RAM and processing power. Gboard’s heavier features may slow your device down.

OpenBoard is among the best alternatives for older Android phones. It provides the essentials and runs lighter with an overall size of around 17MB. It has theming that draws directly from Android’s Material Design era.

The default Material Light and Dark options mirror the clean, paper-like surfaces and subtle shadows Google introduced with Android 5.0 Lollipop.

AMOLED black is closer to the later Material You style but without the pastel color accents. Use it if you want stronger contrast and battery savings on OLED screens.

Pre-Material themes include Holo-inspired options with neon blue or white accents from Android 4 versions, codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean.

OpenBoard also addresses some common pain points you may face. For example, it can’t ping Google services in the background because there is no account requirement. Hence, less battery drain and lag.

The settings are also simple but useful.

Control the keys to your digital expression

My biggest discomfort with using Gboard concerns who it answers to. It’s closely tied to Google’s ad-driven ecosystem.

Every smart prediction or autocorrection may feed a system on how I communicate. It benefits the company’s data goals more than my convenience.

There are plenty of other reasons to replace Gboard with SwiftKey and other keyboards. You may want strictly on-device processing or more customization. Regardless, pick an app that aligns with your needs.