Third-party keyboard developer Fleksy today announced its popular keyboard app on iOS and Android will be going free on a permanent basis, increasing the potential customer base for full basic keyboard functionality while continuing to offer additional premium content such as themes and extension slots for in-app purchase. Fleksy has generally sold for $0.99 in the App Store, although it has occasionally been free for short periods of time.

By making the keyboard available for free, Fleksy is able to serve a much larger and more diverse set of users. With this increased user base, Fleksy will be focused on delivering new and exciting product improvements across all languages.

“We want every smartphone user to have the opportunity to experience fast, expressive, and intuitive typing,” said Fleksy’s Co-Founder and CEO, Kosta Eleftheriou. “We believe the best way to do this is to make the app free for everyone.”

To thank users who previously paid for the app, Fleksy will be offering a set of free themes and extension slots that typically cost $8.

fleksy_highlights
In addition to the shift to a freemium model, Fleksy is also rolling out improvements to GIFs and stickers, building on a feature introduced in April. With the new "Highlights" view, users will be able to easily access relevant GIFs and stickers all in one place by searching and tapping on auto-suggested hashtag topics.

Like many third-party keyboards, Fleksy requires users grant "full access" to the keyboard, a capability that makes some users wary as Apple warns it allows keyboards to log keystrokes and send them back to remote servers. In a support document, Fleksy outlines the keyboard features such as language packs and personalization (as well as GIFs and stickers) that require full access to function, and the company outlines its privacy promises regarding the data it can collect and how it protects that data.

Fleksy Keyboard goes free on the App Store today. [Direct Link]

Top Rated Comments

Zxxv Avatar
101 months ago
Does anyone know how to post a GIF here on an iPhone or iPad?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
az431 Avatar
101 months ago
Still too expensive. None of these third party keyboards are stable and reliable enough to replace the stock one as an everyday keyboard. There is always some app or circumstance where they don't work properly or at all
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
alexgowers Avatar
101 months ago
Still getting crashes all the time and not even appearing, needing to kill app or restart. I'm using swype keyboard but all 3rd party keyboards are crashing. apple needs to sort the API out and make it work. Apple is loosing the plot on their software at the moment, it's like they miss massive huge gaping bugs on every bit of code they do these days. past two years has been bug-o-gedon.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Zxxv Avatar
101 months ago


Doesn't seem to work for me. I pasted it in, and it plays in my edit window, but when I post reply, it just appears as a crossed out box, as you can see. Could you reply to this post and see if the gif plays when you ooen it?
It plays when I reply yes. It doesn't when I copy pasteit. The one bellow I asked for the desktop version so I could get the right url. It's the url you're using that is the problem as I also ran into the same issue.

Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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