Gboard is present on many Android smartphones these days, with Google’s virtual keyboard solution currently taking a big share of the market. Even so, if you ever find yourself craving a different kind of typing experience, know that there are many options that can provide a comparable and, sometimes, even superior experience. This article explores some of the best Gboard keyboard alternatives you can install on your Android device.
1. SwiftKey
Price: Free
Microsoft’s SwiftKey is a well-known Gboard competitor that comes packed with tons of useful features. Among its highlights are the rich theme section, the ability to translate text directly from the keyboard, keyboard undocking, gesture and voice typing, and many others. Users can also tap into the app’s large library of stickers, GIFs and emoji.
For multiple language speakers, SwiftKey lets users add multiple languages (up to five) to their virtual keyboard. To that end, the app supports a total of 400+ languages.
2. Chrooma Keyboard
Price: Free / $9.99
Chrooma Keyboard’s default theme has a chameleonic property that allows it to change colors depending on the app you’re using. For example, if you’re typing a message in WhatsApp, the keyboard will turn green, but if you switch to the Google app, it will turn blue. Of course, there are additional themes to choose from, but some of the options are paid.
Apart from coloring your typing experience, Chroma Keyboard’s free version does bring forth an impressive set of features, including night mode, swiping mode, emoji suggestions and some cool tricks like swiping on the delete key to erase word by word. If you want more, you’ll need to upgrade to Premium, which unlocks even more tricks, like font customization or syncing between devices.
3. Fleksy
Price: Free / $2.99
If you’re a GIF and meme enthusiast, you should look into Fleksy. Once installed, users can easily access the app’s extensive collections of stickers, GIFs, and memes by tapping on the dedicated icons that are embedded in the keyboard. You can even search YouTube directly from the keyboard and quickly share the video in a chat or open the clip on your device.
Flesky supports more than 65 keyboard layouts and dictionary languages (which you can download manually) and allows users to seamlessly switch between different languages.
The app also includes an Extension library that brings some additional features you can add to your keyboard. For example, you can make your keys pop like fireworks every time you type. Flesky also brings many other opportunities for customization, like allowing users to pick the keyboard’s height, the size of keyboard paddings, and the possibility to add a dedicated key for emoji, microphone, languages, etc.
While the Fleksy keyboard app is mostly free to use, you need to pay to get access to certain features, such as extra themes.
4. Go Keyboard
Go Keyboard is an Android keyboard that has been around for some time but still qualifies as an excellent Gboard replacement. Where the app truly shines is theming – it has so many options, you’ll never get bored of your keyboard again.
The Go Keyboard is all about customization, allowing you to also change the keyboard’s background (if you’re not satisfied with the themes). Tap into dedicated stickers and emoji libraries and even create your own avatar emoji. What’s more, the app also offers the services of a font library, so you can easily upgrade your fonts as well.
When it comes to general usage, Go Keyboard is packed with diverse functionalities, including emoji predictions, sliding mode, punctuation suggestions, arrow keys and many others. There is robust language support, and users can switch between multiple languages while using the Go Keyboard.
5. Grammarly Keyboard
For those who want to make sure each and every one of their texts and emails are correctly written and in a fluent style, the Grammarly Keyboard may be the best choice.
This keyboard’s main objective is to help you write flawless text, and to that end it boasts features, such as contextual spelling checker, advanced pronunciation correction, and vocabulary enhancement. Customization options come in second with Grammarly Keyboard, but that’s not to say you don’t get any. Users can select between two themes, specify whether they want key borders and even pick the keyboard’s height.
While it’s possible to add more languages to the virtual keyboard (from a total of 28 choices), bear in mind that Grammarly suggestions (including grammar corrections) are offered only in English.
6. Multilang O Keyboard
This Gboard alternative brings with it support for more than 200 languages and offers various layouts, such as QWERTY, AZERTY, QWERTZ, and more.
The Multilang O Keyboard also has gesture typing, voice input, gesture shortcuts, a customizable gear key, easy switching between languages, and even a PC keyboard layout (DIY). Obviously, there’s autocorrection and suggestions, and users can set the keyboard up so it can learn new words.
The most exciting part, however, is that Multilang O Keyboard lets you literally create your own personalized keyboard according to your preferences. You can go ahead and customize the majority of the keyboard’s elements, including font size, key and bar size/look and much more. The emoji options are not as plentiful as with the other keyboard options, but you do get some.
7. AnySoftKeyboard
AnySoftKeyboard is a keyboard app that’s is a bit on the minimalist side, but even so, the app still manages to pack some excellent customization options. For starters, it features a nice selection of themes, and for each of them, you can enable an adaptive option that allows the keyboard’s color to match the active app.
The app offers multi-language support via external packages, which you need to download from the Play Store. Other highlights include voice support, arrows, gesture support and a nice power-saving mode.
It’s by no means a flashy keyboard, and if you’re usual texting style involves sending lots of GIFs, emoji and emoticons, then you’d probably be better off with one of the other apps included in this article.
Now that you’ve replaced Gboard on your phone, you might be wondering what other great alternatives to Google apps you are you missing out on. To get up to speed with this particular topic, check out our previous articles dedicated to the best Google Photos and Google Maps alternatives.
Alexandra is passionate about mobile tech and can be often found fiddling with a smartphone from some obscure company. She kick-started her career in tech journalism in 2013, after working a few years as a middle-school teacher. Constantly driven by curiosity, Alexandra likes to know how things work and to share that knowledge with everyone.
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