What you need to know
- Fleksy is launching an in-keyboard theme marketplace powered by artists.
- Users will be able to choose from hundreds of free and paid keyboard themes in a wide variety of styles and palettes.
- Paid themes are nothing new for keyboards, and I'm all for paying artists when you'll see their work 250 times a day.
Fleksy is one of the best keyboard apps on the market, but it's still easy to overlook when titans like Gboard and SwiftKey have the power of Google and Microsoft behind them. Fleksy long eschewed gestures and swipe typing, which wasn't added until recently. It's the perfect keyboard for hunt-and-peck typers who like having a lot of add-ons to choose from. After years of Fleksy's keyboard themes being average at best — though I will always adore teal with the fireworks add-on — Fleksy is partnering up with a collection of artists to jazz things up.
FleksyArt is the keyboard's new theme store, which will showcase professionally designed themes from dozens of artists, graphic designers, and illustrators from around the world. Most of these themes are premium, paid themes that will provide a vibrant and unique look to your keyboard, and while I know many scoff at the idea of a paid keyboard theme, if you're going to use someone's art hundreds of times every single day, that artist deserves your support.
The new themes are available under the Artists section of the Fleksy Themes tab, with it broken down by artist and by category. I will say that as someone who has used many, many custom keyboard themes over the years, just be sure to check the readability of the font color used with a keyboard before you buy. After all, if you're going to pay for a keyboard theme, it better be quickly and easily readable for when you're popping off a text reply one-handed while power-walking from one meeting to the next.
Peckers can be choosers.
Leave your expectations at the door; Fleksy is a customizable keyboard for messy typers who are tired of swiping words they didn't mean to. Fleksy shines with its robust add-on system and its new, artist-generated theme store.
