Why I stopped using Google Keyboard and went all-in on FUTO Keyboard

Your keyboard is the most invasive app on your phone. Gboard is good — genuinely good — and I’m not here to argue otherwise. My only problem with it is that it’s owned by an advertising company that’d love to know everything about me.

I stuck with it for so long because I couldn’t find an alternative that matched it without being owned by another tech giant. Then I stumbled onto FUTO Keyboard, and that excuse stopped working.

FUTO Keyboard gave me the peace of mind Gboard never did

Everything you type — your passwords, your bank details, and even your personal messages — passes through your keyboard first. And that’s exactly why using Gboard, or any keyboard that collects data under the guise of “usage statistics” or “diagnostics,” is a problem.

Just head to Gboard’s “Data safety” section on the Play Store and you’ll see what I mean. Sure, most of it is optional and allegedly anonymized, but that’s still not comforting. Above all, when another keyboard can match it feature for feature while being genuinely privacy-friendly, it’s hard to argue the case for Gboard.

Unlike Gboard, FUTO Keyboard doesn’t ask for any faith. While it isn’t fully open-source, it is source-available — which means anyone can inspect the code if they want to verify how the app works under the hood. FUTO doesn’t ask you to create an account simply because there’s no need. You also won’t find any telemetry toggle buried three menus deep or constant “help improve FUTO” prompts. FUTO’s approach is closer to what a keyboard should’ve been from the start: a local tool that does its job and keeps its mouth shut.

The peace of mind isn’t abstract, either. I no longer second-guess what I type. I also don’t have to think twice before typing a password or venting in a message. That mental overhead is just gone. FUTO Keyboard is also completely free, with no ads anywhere. You can pay if you enjoy it and want to support development, but the full thing is yours either way.

FUTO doesn’t feel like a compromise

It’s not like FUTO Keyboard is the only privacy-friendly Gboard alternative around. There are the likes of HeliBoard and OpenBoard that also work offline and don’t collect any data. But the reason I went with FUTO Keyboard specifically is that it looks and feels closest to Gboard, and doesn’t skip any features that make you regret the switch.

It covers everything you’d expect — themes, autocorrect, swipe typing, text suggestions, and even a personal dictionary. And none of it feels bloated or half-baked. What makes FUTO different isn’t just what it has, but how it works. It doesn’t need the internet for any of the features — everything runs locally, on your phone, all the time.

There’s even voice typing, which is powered by a Whisper-based model that runs entirely on-device. The default model works quite well, but FUTO also offers extra models you can download separately. Some of these are optimized for speed, others prioritize accuracy, and a few aim for a balance between the two. There are multilingual options too, although I’d stick to those only on a flagship. Either way, not a single second of your audio leaves your phone.

The little things FUTO does better than Gboard

Privacy may have been my biggest reason for switching to FUTO Keyboard, but honestly, it’s the little things that made me stay. For instance, I like how holding the backspace key deletes entire words instead of letters one at a time. The blacklist feature in text suggestions is my other favorite. FUTO blocks offensive words by default, but you can go further and add any word you don’t want it to suggest.

I also like the Action Key, which sits on the left of the spacebar. You can set it to trigger whatever feature you use the most — voice typing, language switching, clipboard, text editor, paste from clipboard, and even keyboard modes. I’ve set mine to Select All, so I don’t have to long-press every time I want to wipe out what I’ve typed and start over.

There are even Undo and Redo shortcuts, which means if I paste the wrong thing from my clipboard or want to remove a sentence, I don’t have to waste time selecting and deleting manually — one tap sorts it. Of course, none of these features are big enough to make anyone switch their keyboard. Heck, they don’t even show up on the app’s features list. But the more I’ve used FUTO, the more I’ve started to appreciate them.

I like FUTO, but it’s not for everyone

I’ve enjoyed using FUTO Keyboard so far, but I won’t pretend switching to an offline keyboard is for everyone — or that Gboard doesn’t do some things better. It absolutely does.

The most obvious one is cross-device sync. With Gboard, your personal dictionary and learned words follow you across every phone or tablet you sign into. FUTO obviously can’t do that since it doesn’t connect to the internet. The silver lining is that you can export your personal dictionary and settings if you’re switching phones, but yes, it’s something you have to do manually.

The cloud-powered extras are missing, too. There are no AI writing tools to proofread, rephrase, or adjust your tone. You just get autocorrect, and that’s it. Stickers and GIFs are missing as well, so you’re mostly relying on whatever app you’re using to search and send those. It really comes down to what you actually want from a keyboard. If you mostly just type and you’d rather do that without sending data anywhere, FUTO Keyboard covers everything you need and then some.

Gboard isn’t going anywhere, and for most people, it probably never will. But if you’ve ever had that nagging feeling that your keyboard knows a little too much about you, switching to one that doesn’t isn’t too hard.

Have you tried FUTO or any other privacy-friendly keyboard app, or are you sticking with Gboard? Drop your thoughts in the comments.