Ownkey Keyboard (Android)

Ownkey Keyboard is a privacy-first, open-source Android keyboard focused on practical AI input.

Core idea:

• bring your own API key (BYOK)
• use Mistral Voxtral ASR for voice input
• keep user control over settings, provider choice, and local behavior
• no in-app monitoring of private user content

Also included:

• Wear OS companion IME focused on reliable transcript-first input
• phone-to-watch Voxtral config sync (API key, endpoint, model, language hint)

This project is a derivative fork of FlorisBoard and remains Apache-2.0 licensed.

---

Screenshots (current direction)

Wear OS input design direction (Material You style)

Wear OS live IME prototype

---

What is already implemented

1) Mistral Voxtral ASR input (working)

• Voice input routes to internal dictation flow (not only external IME switching).
• Default endpoint/model:
  • https://api.mistral.ai/v1/audio/transcriptions
  • voxtral-mini-latest
• Configurable endpoint + model in settings (for compatible/self-host flows).
• Mistral signup shortcut in settings.

2) BYOK with secure local key storage

• API keys are stored using Android Keystore-backed encrypted preferences.
• Legacy plaintext key migration is included and old plaintext values are removed.
• Backup export sanitizes sensitive key values.

3) Autocorrect and suggestions that actually help

• Suggestion pipeline tuned for real typing flow.
• EN/NL frequency dictionaries integrated.
• Ranking improvements, caching, and safer correction behavior on short tokens.
• Suggestion defaults enabled.

4) Design and UX improvements

• Ownkey dark visual direction (high contrast, cleaner quick actions).
• Samsung-inspired quick-actions overflow layout refinements.
• Theme controls simplified:
  • Light / Dark / Follow system
  • Key borders on/off
  • Corner radius: None / Small / Medium / Large

---

Privacy model

Ownkey does not add private-content monitoring inside the keyboard app itself.

Important nuance:

• when ASR is enabled, audio is sent to the configured ASR endpoint (Mistral by default, or your custom endpoint)
• data handling at that endpoint is governed by that provider's policy

So, app-side telemetry/monitoring is not the model, but networked ASR naturally means request data goes to the configured ASR service.

---

Quick start (dev)

Requirements

• Android Studio (current stable)
• Java 17
• Android SDK + emulator/device

Build

./gradlew :app:assembleDebug

Run

• Install debug APK
• Enable Ownkey Keyboard in Android input settings
• Open Ownkey settings to configure Voxtral endpoint/model and API key

---

CI / Releases

GitHub Actions workflow: Ownkey Android CI

What it now builds:

• Phone APK
• Wear APK
• Release AABs for both modules (on release builds)

Artifacts are exported with explicit versioned names, for example:

• ownkey-phone-debug-v0.6.0-alpha02-<sha>.apk
• ownkey-wear-debug-v0.6.0-alpha02-<sha>.apk
• ownkey-phone-release-v0.6.0-alpha02-<sha>.aab
• ownkey-wear-release-v0.6.0-alpha02-<sha>.aab

This is intended to keep Play Store upload files and test builds traceable per version.

---

Documentation

• Product/technical plan: VOXTRAL_KEYBOARD_PLAN.md
• Feature scope and status: VOXTRAL_FEATURE_SCOPE.md
• API setup (direct + relay options): VOXTRAL_API_SETUP.md
• Brandbook (HTML): docs/brandbook/ownkey-brand-book-2026-02-24-v2.html
• Changelog: CHANGELOG.md

---

Contributing

PRs are welcome.

When contributing, please keep these priorities:

1. Privacy and explicit user control
2. Reliability of typing/autocorrect
3. Low-friction Voxtral dictation UX
4. Clear attribution for forked/original FlorisBoard components

---

License and attribution

This project is distributed under the Apache License 2.0.

It is based on FlorisBoard, with Ownkey-specific modifications for dictation, privacy controls, autocorrect tuning, and UX/theme improvements.

• License text: LICENSE
• Original project: https://github.com/florisboard/florisboard