Are All Third Party Keyboard Apps Safe to Use?
Nearly 50% of the time that you spend on your smartphone, its display is covered with the digital keyboard. Whether you are typing a message or conducting a search, you need this digital keyboard to type in the necessary inputs. It is common for people to install 3rd party keyboard applications to customize the look and feel of the keyboard, have ease of typing and to have different language options too. The rage of GIFs, stickers, colorful themes etc. too has made them popular. So, today we’ll focus on the security aspect of 3rd party mobile keyboard apps. Read on to know whether Third-party keyboard apps are safe to use.
What Are The Risks Associated With Keyboard Apps?
It would not be an exaggeration to say that people are addicted to downloading apps for every next reason. While doing this, one might just skip looking for safe keyboard apps for Android or iOS and might end up compromising on the security.
Today, you use the keyboard to enter the login credentials for all your social networking and mobile banking websites. So, an unsafe keyboard application serves the purpose of someone constantly looking over your shoulder into your screen. This constant monitor of the on-screen items will inadvertently lead to a data leak wherein the app owners get an instant access to each and everything that you type on your phone.
Apart from this, some of these applications also ask for an access to the microphone, camera or the list of contacts on your phone. Granting a full-fledged access to all this data can prove to be very dangerous since a constant stream of data can easily flow all the way to the developer with your permission. So read the terms, before you click on ‘Allow’ or ‘I Agree’ or download any app.
Are All Of Them Unsafe? Which Keyboard Application Should You Install?
No. Not all applications pose a threat to your data security. We do not suggest that you must remove all these applications from your phone while considering measures for iOS or Android keyboard app security.Some of them are really good. The popular applications that you can install safely on your device include SwiftKey, GBoard and Fleksy.
There are other safe applications too and you can be the judge to the safety of these applications by carefully going through the list of permissions that they require while installing them on day 1.
Tips to Install a Safe 3rd Party Keyboard Application
Here are a few steps that you can take to make sure that the application that you install is safe.
- Install applications from popular app developers like Google, Microsoft etc. iOS and Android app development of these reliable MNCs is worth trusting.
- Look for applications with an editor’s choice remark (on Google Play Store). These applications are tried and tested by the Google Play authorities for safety.
- Check for permissions while installing the application. In case you find that the application requires access to elements such as your microphone, camera, or contacts, it might not be entirely safe to install them in the first place.
- Do a quick Google search for the third party keyboard app that you like and find if you come across negative reviews. It is common even for the most popular applications to have a few negative reviews here and there. However, it is advisable not to install an application, where you find that its negative reviews outweigh the positive reviews or where every next review that you read talks negatives especially about data security aspect.
Mobile app developers around the globe are working round the clock to develop safer applications for their customers. In fact, the most popular mobile app development practices ask the developers to dedicate nearly 25% of the development time simply into testing the application.
So, instead of completely refraining yourself from using these appealing applications, you should adopt ways to choose a safe application. A little research to ensure being safe is not bad any day. So, adopt a vigilant approach while downloading such apps.
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