At a glance
| Flikzi | Samsung Keyboard | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free; Pro US$4.99 once (before tax), after a 14-day trial of everything | Free, built into Galaxy phones and tablets |
| Internet permission | None, so it cannot send what you type anywhere | Yes. Uses the network for Samsung account sync and cloud-based Galaxy AI features. |
| Account | None | Optional Samsung account, which can sync predictive text data to your other Galaxy devices |
| AI writing tools | No | Writing assist on selected Galaxy models: chat translation, composing, writing styles, spelling and grammar |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Deleting | Swipe the space bar left to delete and right to bring back; keep holding to keep going | Backspace key |
| Moving the cursor | Hold the space bar, then slide | Cursor control by swiping on the keyboard, as a setting in place of swipe to type |
| Learning | Your words, which word follows which, your email addresses and where your thumbs land, on the phone only | Predictive text learns the words you type; Samsung's privacy notice lists them among the data it collects |
| Glide typing | Yes: slide over a word’s letters, one word per glide (a switch in settings) | Yes (Swipe to type) |
| Voice typing | With Pro: Android’s on-device recogniser (Android 12 and later); the sound stays on the phone | Yes: Samsung voice input, with offline language packs, or Google Voice Typing |
| Handwriting | No | Yes, with a finger or S Pen |
| 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 | Yes |
| Emoji | Panel, search, suggestions and skin tones; no GIFs or stickers | Emoji, stickers and GIFs |
| Foldables and tablets | Splits in two, with 6 or 9 word choices as hexagons between the halves (Pro) | Split keyboard in landscape and on wide screens such as the Z Fold |
Samsung Keyboard details checked on 13 November 2026 from Samsung’s own pages and the sources below.
Privacy and data
Samsung's privacy notice lists "the words that you type when you enable Predictive text" among the information it collects, and says this may be linked to your Samsung account to sync it to your other Samsung devices. You can clear the data in the Predictive text settings.
Samsung says most Galaxy AI translations run on the phone, while "most other features require a network connection and will utilize the cloud in some way". A switch in the Galaxy AI settings, called "Process data only on device", turns cloud processing off.
Flikzi has no account or sync, and no AI service: nothing you type leaves your phone. 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
Samsung Keyboard and Flikzi are both QWERTY keyboards: the letters are in the same places and you tap one key per letter. Samsung 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 Samsung Keyboard if
- You want Galaxy AI to translate, rewrite or check your messages as you type.
- You write by hand with an S Pen.
- You want your predictions synced between your Galaxy devices.
- You want it already there: nothing to install, nothing to pay.
Choose Flikzi if
- You want what you type to stay on your phone, with no account and no cloud features.
- You like flicks: capitals, digits and marks come from the letter keys, and deleting is a swipe on the space bar.
- You type in Flikzi’s 23 languages and, with Pro, switch between them with one flick.
- You use a Galaxy Fold or tablet and want a split keyboard with the word choices between the halves (Pro).
Switching from Samsung Keyboard
Install Flikzi from Google Play, turn it on in Settings, and choose it as your keyboard. Samsung Keyboard stays on your phone, so you can switch back at any time from the keyboard switcher.
The letters are where Samsung 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 Samsung Keyboard predictions do not carry over. Flikzi starts from its own built-in dictionary and learns your words as you type.
Sources
- Samsung US: Adjust keyboard settings on your Galaxy phone or tablet
- Samsung US: Use Writing assist on Galaxy phones and tablets
- Samsung US: Use features with Galaxy AI (on-device and cloud processing)
- Samsung NZ: Enabling swipe mode in Samsung Keyboard settings
- Samsung US privacy policy: Samsung Keyboard information