Permissions and your data

Your typing never leaves your phone

That is Flikzi's promise. Autocorrect, suggestions, pinyin, Japanese conversion, emoji and voice typing all run on the phone itself, and what you type is never sent to us or to anyone else. There is no account to sign in to, and Flikzi shows no ads.

Two optional permissions

Flikzi can ask for two permissions. Both are off until you turn on the feature that needs them, both can be refused, and Flikzi works without them.

Microphone

Used for: voice typing, and nothing else.

When it is asked: the first time you tap the mic at the right end of the strip, or when you turn on Voice typing in the Flikzi Pro box without it. A small card explains first, then Android asks.

What happens with the sound: Flikzi listens only between your tap on the mic and the end of what you say. The sound is turned into text by Android's speech recognition on the phone itself and never leaves the phone. Flikzi doesn't keep the sound and doesn't learn from what you say.

If you refuse: the rest of Flikzi works as before. To hide the mic, turn Voice typing off.

One exception to know: a phone without speech recognition of its own may have a separate voice typing keyboard, such as Google voice typing. There the mic opens that keyboard. Flikzi's settings say so, and Flikzi asks once before it opens that keyboard for the first time. That keyboard follows its own privacy rules, and its maker may receive the sound of what you say.

Contacts

Used for: offering your contacts' email addresses in the strip while you type one, and nothing else.

When it is asked: only when you turn on Typing, Contacts' email addresses in Flikzi's settings. That setting is off until you turn it on.

What happens with your contacts: Flikzi reads the names and email addresses on your phone when a text field opens. It doesn't copy, store or send them. Turn the setting off and it stops reading them.

If you refuse: the setting switches itself back off. Flikzi still offers the addresses you typed yourself.

Check it yourself

1. Open your phone's Settings, then Apps.
2. Tap Flikzi, then Permissions.
3. Android lists Contacts and Microphone. Each one is under Not allowed until you allow it, and you can change either one there at any time.

There is no network permission on that screen, because Flikzi doesn't have one. It doesn't request the INTERNET permission, and Android doesn't let an app without it connect to a network. On most phones the ⋮ menu on that screen has All permissions, which shows the full list: there is no network access in it.

That full list has one more entry, Google Play billing service. It lets the Play Store app handle buying Flikzi Pro. It isn't one you allow or deny. Flikzi never talks to a network itself: the Play Store app does, for the purchase only, and Flikzi learns only whether you own Pro.

On Google Play you can check before installing: open the listing, tap About this app, then App permissions.

What Flikzi stores

Only on your phone, in the app's private storage:

• What it learns from your typing: your words, which word you type after which, the whole email addresses you type, and the pinyin readings you pick.
• Where your thumbs land: for each key, how far from its centre your taps usually fall. These are numbers for each key, with no text.
• Your clipboard history (Flikzi Pro): the last 20 texts you copied, each for an hour, and the ones you pinned. Nothing is kept from password fields or from clips an app marks as sensitive. Clipboard history
• Your text shortcuts, and any text you put on the clipboard keys. Text shortcuts
• Your settings, your recently used emoji and the skin tones you picked.

Nothing is learned in password fields, or where an app asks keyboards not to learn, such as Chrome's incognito tabs. In email fields only the whole address is learned.

You can clear it:

• Typing, Forget learned words clears everything in the first two points.
• Switching Clipboard history off clears the history.
• Uninstalling Flikzi deletes all of it.

Flikzi has no sync. Flikzi is also left out of Android's own phone backup: your settings, text shortcuts, learned words and clipboard history stay on this phone only. On a new phone you set Flikzi up again.

What it never does

• Send what you type, say or copy anywhere.
• Show ads or use advertising IDs.
• Collect analytics.

Will Flikzi ever go online?

The promise is about your typing, not about the network. A later version may need the network for something that has nothing to do with what you type. If that happens:

• what you type still stays on your phone,
• the permission shows up in Android's list of Flikzi's permissions,
• the privacy policy says exactly what is sent before that version ships.

The Android warning

When you turn Flikzi on, Android warns that it "may be able to collect all the text you type". Android shows this for every keyboard, because every keyboard sees your text. It doesn't distinguish keyboards that send text from those that don't. Flikzi doesn't.

Full details: privacy policy and how Flikzi keeps your typing private.