CleverKeys

CleverKeys uses a custom transformer neural network (encoder-decoder architecture) trained specifically for swipe typing. Unlike algorithmic approaches, neural models learn complex patterns from real swipe data. The model architecture, training code, and datasets are all publicly available at CleverKeys-ML — making it fully reproducible and auditable.

Key differentiators:

• Only keyboard with public ML training pipeline — verify exactly how the model was trained
• ONNX format — cross-platform, hardware-accelerated inference via XNNPACK
• Sub-200ms predictions — optimized for mobile with beam search decoding
• 208 customizable short-swipe gestures — 8 directions × 26 letter keys

Android restricts clipboard access for security - apps can't read clipboard contents in the background. But keyboards are special. As an Input Method Editor (IME), CleverKeys has legitimate clipboard access, making it the only way to get truly unlimited clipboard history without root.

CleverKeys is the only open-source keyboard with reliable swipe/gesture typing in Termux. Other keyboards either disable gestures in terminals (FlorisBoard), produce corrupted output (HeliBoard), or simply don't work (FUTO). Commercial keyboards like Gboard and SwiftKey also disable swipe in Termux. CleverKeys works everywhere — including terminal emulators, SSH sessions, and developer tools.

CleverKeys features one of the most powerful keyboard theme engines available:

• CleverKeys Dark — Deep purple with silver accents (default)
• CleverKeys Light — Silver keys with purple accents
• Neon Cyan/Magenta — Vibrant cyberpunk aesthetic
• ePaper / ePaper Black — High contrast e-ink styles
• Jungle — Tropical teal theme
• Everforest Light — Soft green nature theme
• Monet (Auto) — Material You dynamic colors
• Dark / Light / Black / Alt Black — Classic options
• And many more...

Build your own themes on-the-fly with full control over:

• Key Colors — Default, Activated, Locked, Modifier, Special
• Label Colors — Primary, Sub-label, Secondary labels
• Border Colors — Full border customization
• Trail Effects — Swipe trail color and style

• Transformer-based encoder-decoder model (5.4MB encoder + 7.4MB decoder)
• Sub-200ms predictions with hardware acceleration (XNNPACK)
• 100% local processing — works in airplane mode
• Full inference control — beam width, length normalization, pruning, early stopping

As an IME, CleverKeys has legitimate clipboard access that other apps don't:

• Unlimited history (configurable by count or storage size)
• Pin important items
• Search through history
• Persistent across reboots
• Export/Import for backup

• Zero network permissions — literally cannot phone home
• No analytics or telemetry
• No cloud sync
• All processing on-device
• Open source = auditable

Unlike black-box keyboards, CleverKeys exposes all parameters:

• Beam search tuning (width, length normalization, pruning)
• Autocorrect settings (thresholds, style presets)
• Dictionary control (custom words, frequency adjustments)
• Gesture sensitivity and thresholds

Inherited from Unexpected Keyboard:

• QWERTY, AZERTY, QWERTZ, Dvorak, Colemak
• Programming layouts with special characters
• International layouts for 30+ languages
• Customizable bottom row and modifiers

• Terminal mode — Ctrl/Meta/Fn keys for Termux users
• Short swipe gestures — Swipe keys for symbols, navigation, clipboard, and function keys (inherited from Unexpected Keyboard)
• Backup & Restore — Export all settings and custom data

📚 Tech Stack & Open-source Libraries

• Minimum SDK level 26 (Android 8.0+)
• Kotlin based — 100% Kotlin, zero Java
• ONNX Runtime — Microsoft's cross-platform inference engine
• Kotlin Coroutines — Asynchronous processing
• Flow — Reactive data streams
• Material 3 — Google's latest design system

• Android SDK (API 26+)
• Gradle 8.6+
• Kotlin 1.9.20
• JDK 17

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/tribixbite/CleverKeys.git
cd CleverKeys

# Debug build
./gradlew assembleDebug

# Run tests
./gradlew test

# APK location
# build/outputs/apk/debug/cleverkeys.apk

Use the included build script which handles ARM64-specific AAPT2:

./build-on-termux.sh

CleverKeys uses a custom transformer neural network model for gesture recognition:

Training code, model architecture, and datasets: CleverKeys-ML

☕ Buy me a coffee

This application is completely free and open source. If you want to support continued development, you can send a donation via the methods below:

triQem2gDXHXweNceTKWGfDfN6AnpCHmjR745LXcbix

CleverKeys began as a fork of Unexpected Keyboard by Jules Aguillon (@Julow). The original is an excellent, highly customizable keyboard with support for 100+ layouts.

Our projects have since diverged significantly (~900 commits apart):

• Complete rewrite from Java to Kotlin
• Addition of gesture typing via custom neural network model
• Clipboard history system
• Different architecture (coroutines, ONNX integration)

If you want a lightweight keyboard without gesture typing, we recommend the original Unexpected Keyboard.

• Neural Swipe Typing by @proshian — Initial architecture inspiration
• How We Swipe — Research paper and dataset on swipe behavior
• FUTO Swipe Dataset — Hugging Face dataset

⭐ Star History

📢 Support

• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Discussions: GitHub Discussions
• Security: See SECURITY.md

CleverKeys - Neural Gesture Keyboard for Android
Copyright (C) 2024-2025 tribixbite

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.