What is the difference between Flikzi and FUTO Keyboard?

FUTO Keyboard is a keyboard from FUTO that never connects to the internet, with its own offline voice input, custom layouts and source code you can read. FUTO says it is still in active development and may be missing features or languages. Flikzi is a QWERTY keyboard too, on a honeycomb of hexagon keys, where flicks replace the shift and backspace keys; it is free to download, with a one-time Pro upgrade. Neither has the internet permission. Choose FUTO for source code you can read and a voice model of its own; choose Flikzi for flicks and for dictionaries built in for all 23 of its languages.

Is Flikzi a good FUTO Keyboard alternative for privacy?

Both are private: neither Flikzi nor FUTO Keyboard has the internet permission, so neither can send what you type anywhere. They differ in features, price and source code. If you want to read the source code of the keyboard you use, FUTO Keyboard may suit you better.

Flikzi vs FUTO Keyboard: two offline keyboards

At a glance

	Flikzi	FUTO Keyboard
Price	Free; Pro US$4.99 once (before tax), after a 14-day trial of everything	Pay if you like it: US$6.99 once through FUTO Pay, or US$11.99 through Google Play
Internet permission	None, so it cannot send what you type anywhere	None. Its manifest also removes the network-state permission.
Other permissions	Google Play billing, so the Play Store can sell Pro. Two optional ones, off until you turn the feature on: Microphone (voice typing) and Contacts (your contacts’ email addresses)	Microphone (voice input), notifications, and photos (for screenshots in the clipboard), among others
Source code	Closed source	Published under the FUTO Source First License, which allows any use, but changes and sharing for non-commercial purposes only
Layout	QWERTY on a honeycomb of hexagon keys with no gaps, in rows of 10, 9 and 7; no shift key and no backspace key	QWERTY and other layouts with shift and backspace keys, plus layouts you write yourself
Capitals	Flick a letter up; flick up on the right of the space bar to step a whole word to Capital or ALL CAPS; automatic at sentence starts	Shift key
Moving the cursor	Hold the space bar, then slide	Swipe or long-press the space bar (a setting)
Autocorrect and suggestions	Reads where each tap landed. Your letters stay as typed until you press space; delete straight after to get them back	Yes; its transformer language model for smarter corrections and next words works in English only for now
Glide typing	Yes: slide over a word’s letters, one word per glide (a switch in settings)	Yes (FUTO Swipe, a switch in settings)
Voice typing	With Pro: Android’s on-device recogniser (Android 12 and later); the sound stays on the phone	Yes, offline, with its own model; for languages other than English you download a multilingual model
Dictionaries	Built in for all 23 languages, including Chinese, Japanese and Korean	Not shipped for most languages: you download a dictionary and import it
Clipboard history	With Pro: the last 20 things you copied, kept for an hour unless you pin them	Yes, a clipboard manager
One-handed mode	Yes, to the left or right, on phones	Yes, and a floating keyboard
Themes	Light, dark or follow the phone, and five accent colours; no picture themes	A variety of themes
Emoji	Panel, search, suggestions and skin tones; no GIFs or stickers	Panel and emoji suggestions
Foldables and tablets	Splits in two, with 6 or 9 word choices as hexagons between the halves (Pro)	Split mode

FUTO Keyboard details checked on 13 November 2026 from FUTO’s own pages and the sources below.

Privacy and data

FUTO Keyboard and Flikzi make the same basic promise: the keyboard cannot reach the internet. FUTO's manifest declares no INTERNET permission and explicitly removes the network-state one, and its Google Play data-safety label says no data is collected or shared.

Both ask for a few permissions for features you choose to use. FUTO asks for the microphone for its offline voice input, for notifications, and for your photos so screenshots can appear in its clipboard. Flikzi asks for the microphone for voice typing and for your contacts if you want their email addresses offered. With no internet permission, none of this can leave the phone in either keyboard.

One difference is voice typing. FUTO runs its own speech model inside the keyboard. Flikzi uses the recogniser that Android has on the phone (Android 12 and later), which also keeps the sound on the phone; on a phone without one, Flikzi’s mic opens another voice keyboard if the phone has one, and that keyboard follows its own maker’s rules. Flikzi has no internet permission, which Android requires for any network access, so it cannot send what you type anywhere. Its two optional permissions, Microphone for voice typing and Contacts for your contacts’ email addresses, stay off until you turn those features on. You can see both on your own phone in Settings, Apps, Flikzi, Permissions.

Typing

FUTO Keyboard and Flikzi are both QWERTY keyboards: the letters are in the same places and you tap one key per letter. FUTO Keyboard has a shift key for capitals, a backspace key for deleting and a symbols layer for digits and marks. Flikzi does those jobs with flicks and swipes. Flick a letter up for its capital and down for the digit or mark drawn under it. Swipe the space bar left to delete and right to bring letters back; keep holding after the swipe and it keeps going, faster the longer you hold. Hold the space bar, then slide, to move the cursor.

Flikzi’s keys are hexagons on a honeycomb with no gaps, so every touch goes to the nearest key. Its autocorrect reads where each tap landed and allows for a neighbouring key, a missed letter, an extra tap or swapped letters. Your letters stay as typed until you press space. If a correction is wrong, delete straight after and your own letters come back.

The flicks take a few minutes to learn. Try every gesture in your browser before you decide.

Choose FUTO Keyboard if

You want to read the source code of the keyboard you use.
You want voice typing from a speech model inside the keyboard itself.
You want to design your own layout.
You are happy to pay only if you like it.

Choose Flikzi if

You like flicks: capitals, digits and marks come from the letter keys, and deleting is a swipe on the space bar.
You type in Chinese, Japanese, Korean or another of Flikzi’s 23 languages and want it working without importing files.
You use a foldable or tablet and want a split keyboard with the word choices between the halves (Pro).

Switching from FUTO Keyboard

Install Flikzi from Google Play, turn it on in Settings, and choose it as your keyboard. FUTO Keyboard stays installed, so you can switch back at any time from the keyboard switcher.

The letters are where FUTO Keyboard has them, so your fingers already know the way. What changes is around them: there is no shift key and no backspace key, so give the flicks a few minutes.

Your FUTO personal dictionary does not carry over. Flikzi starts from its own built-in dictionary and learns your words as you type.

Flikzi vs FUTO Keyboard