Download

Install it directly. It is not on Google Play yet.

Version 1.0.401 · debug · Android 7.0 or newer

The link carries the version, so every release is a new address and a cached copy of an older one can never be served in its place. Bookmark this page rather than the file — it always points at the newest build.

Check what you downloaded

Every build is signed with the same key, so Android will only install an update over one that came from here. If you want to verify the file itself, its SHA-256 is:

a4561f1eeab1aae04af949fda7f5f73fab11d7e9f9a87a6f5ace8e5d8e1da718

A newer one, not yet confirmed working

1.0.441 has not been run on a phone by anybody yet. It is newer than the download above and it is here so that it can be. If you are hitting something the newer build is meant to fix, this is the one to take.

If it misbehaves, install the version above straight over it. Every build is signed with the same key, so going back is a normal install — nothing is uninstalled and nothing on the phone is lost.

Download 1.0.441 · 24.7 MB

SHA-256 fb2b3ce021d406ab1a6c23b03cf696a96c69e737957a43ee99c22075dfbdb511

New here? This is the whole of it, in order: download the file, allow your browser to install it, turn the keyboard on, then paste in an API key to fetch the speech model. About five minutes, and every step below says what your phone will actually put on screen.

Installing it, step by step

6 steps

1. Download the file

Tap the download button above, on the phone itself.

“This type of file can harm your device. Do you want to keep whisperkeyboard….apk anyway?”

Choose Download anyway (Chrome) or Keep (Samsung Internet, Firefox). That warning shows for every APK ever downloaded, including the ones Play installs for you without asking.

↓

whisperkeyboard.apk

2. Let your browser install it

Tap the finished download — from the notification, or in Files → Downloads.

“For your security, your phone is not allowed to install unknown apps from this source.”

Tap Settings on that dialog. It takes you straight to the right screen — Install unknown apps — already showing the app you downloaded with. Turn on Allow from this source, then press back.

This permission is per app, not a global setting. You are allowing Chrome, not the whole phone, and you can turn it off again afterwards without uninstalling anything.

⚠

the warning you were told to expect

3. Confirm the install

“Do you want to install this app?” — and possibly “Send app for scanning?”

Tap Install. Scanning is optional and either answer is fine. If Play Protect says it does not recognise the developer, choose Install anyway — it has not seen this app before because it has never been in the store.

✓

installed

4. Turn the keyboard on

Installing does not switch it on; Android never enables a keyboard for you. Open Settings → System → Languages & input → On-screen keyboard → Manage keyboards and turn on Ownword.

“This input method may be able to collect all the text you type…”

That warning appears for every keyboard on Android, because every keyboard can see what you type. What this one does with it is set out on the privacy page: it stays on your phone.

On Samsung the path is Settings → General management → Keyboard list and default. Searching settings for “keyboard” finds it on any phone.

⚙

Manage keyboards

5. Switch to it

Open any app and tap a text box. A small keyboard icon appears in the navigation bar — tap it and pick Ownword.

On phones with gesture navigation, hold the spacebar on your current keyboard instead.

⇆

pick it from the switcher

6. Add an API key, to fetch the speech model

Typing, autocorrect, prediction, emoji, clipboard and every figure the app works out about your writing all work with no key at all. The key fetches the speech model - once, about 273 MB, from your own Exchange - and reaches your files and your AI. The words themselves are worked out on the phone and never leave it.

Open the app from your launcher — a card walks you through it: Ask opens a pre-filled email, Paste takes the key from your clipboard, Test confirms it. A green Connected is what you want.

Ask for an API key

🎤

and then dictate

Android treats anything not from the Play Store as unknown, so it asks you twice whether you meant it. Both prompts are expected. Neither one means anything is wrong — they are what installing outside a store looks like, and the wording above is what your phone will actually say.

Updating later is easier. Once it is installed, the app can fetch new builds itself — open its Settings and use Check for updates. You only need this page once.

If something goes wrong

What you see	What it means	What to do
“App not installed”	Almost always an older copy still on the phone, signed with a different key.	Uninstall the old one and install again. Your settings do not survive that, so copy your API key out first.
“There was a problem parsing the package”	The download did not finish.	Download it again, on a stable connection.
Blocked by Play Protect	Google has not seen this app before, because it has never been in the store.	Choose Install anyway. You can verify the file against the SHA-256 above first if you would rather.
The keyboard is not in the list	Installed, but not enabled.	Search your phone settings for keyboard and turn on Ownword. Step 4 above.
The microphone key does nothing	Permission was refused twice, so Android stopped asking.	Open the app info for Ownword in system settings and allow the microphone by hand.
Not connected after Test	The key is wrong, or the phone is offline.	Check for stray spaces when pasting. If it still fails, ask for a fresh key.

Getting an API key

Keys are issued by hand, so there is a person on the other end of this. Since 1.0.368 you can ask from inside the app: Settings, Files, Ask for a key, or the same button on the Get started card. It wants your email address, your name and one line about what you want it for, and it says exactly what it sends. When it is approved the key arrives on that screen by itself and tests itself — there is nothing to copy and nothing else to configure.

Nothing has to be issued to you first. You are asking precisely because you have not been given anything.
You do not need a key to start. Install it, type with it, and ask for a key when you want the speech model, your files or the AI.
One key per person. Rate limits are counted per account, so a shared key means sharing the limit.
It is stored encrypted on your phone and sent only to your own Exchange, as a header. It is never in a URL.
Lost it? Ask again and the old one is replaced.

Ask for an API key Manage or rotate a key

Version history

The version number is the number of changes made to the project, so it only ever goes up and never repeats. The newest few are kept here to download, so there is something to go back to if a new one misbehaves.

Version	What changed	Commit	Download
1.0.441	Apostrophes put in for contractions, and a preview bar you can slide	25e0f93	24.7 MB testing
1.0.440	A strip you can trust: what space will do, fixes that stay, ? on the full stop	8c11792	not kept
1.0.439	A comma that becomes / or @, wider punctuation keys, telemetry out of the file lists	1ac2ef4	not kept
1.0.438	Numbers as a number pad on the symbols panel, and a session board key	2348a8c	not kept
1.0.437	Your portal: the session board, its sound in the background, and send to phone	15590cc	not kept
1.0.436	Offer a missed space only once the typed letters cannot become a word	219c8a7	not kept
1.0.435	Autocorrect as one choice of four; tap an underlined word to fix it	83e6aaa	not kept
1.0.434	Typing settings set once for tapping; the speaker and echo keys let old keyboards go	e26246d	not kept
1.0.433	The speaker key keeps the source picked on its hold	77bf226	not kept
1.0.432	Keys clear the home bar at once; the speaker key shows its mode and source	9816ca4	not kept
1.0.431	Dictation history opens at once, by day and coloured by when	abcce1a	not kept
1.0.430	Your to-do list, made from what you dictate; project rows off the AI key	7588233	not kept
1.0.401	Read aloud, stage 5: the speaker key on the shortcut row	dfad00d	24.5 MB recommended
1.0.400	Read aloud, stage 4: from any app - the selection menu and the share sheet	94aee12	24.5 MB
1.0.399	Read aloud, stage 3: the chat reads its answers	e1bc7b9	24.5 MB
1.0.397	Read aloud, stage 1: the Settings tab, the voices, and a player that streams them	362deb6	24.4 MB
1.0.393	A right-handed keyboard: the left-handed one, mirrored	9f4dfd4	21.1 MB

Going back to an older build means uninstalling first. Android refuses to replace an app with an older version of itself, so the install will fail with App not installed until you remove the current one. Uninstalling erases your API key, your recordings and everything else the keyboard has stored — that is the same promise that keeps your data off our servers working against you here, and there is no way around it. Copy your API key out first.

Why it is not on Play yet

A Play listing needs a verified organisation, which needs a D-U-N-S number, which takes a few weeks to issue. Nothing about the app is waiting on it — this is the same build that will go there.

What it will cost

A small recurring fee — enough to pay for the transcription and the storage behind it, and no more.

The number is not settled, and it is not going up on this page until it is. What is settled is what it is not: it will not be free-because-your-typing-is-the-product, and there is no plan in which your data pays for it.