Explainer

What “Allow Full Access” means for iPhone keyboards

Published 3 October 2026 · 4 min read

Install any keyboard from the App Store and iOS will, sooner or later, show you a switch called Allow Full Access and a warning that sounds alarming. Here is what the switch actually does, according to Apple’s developer documentation, and how to decide whether to turn it on.

What a keyboard can do without Full Access

Apple’s documentation for developers describes a third-party keyboard without Full Access (“open access”, in Apple’s term) as running in a sandbox that does not allow network access. Apple puts the user’s side of it simply: in this mode, users know that keystrokes go only to the app that is currently using the keyboard, and the system guarantees it. Such a keyboard can still:

• do everything expected of a basic keyboard;
• use a common-words lexicon for autocorrect and suggestions;
• read your Text Replacement shortcuts from Settings;
• keep files in its own sandbox, and read — but not write — the containers it shares with its app.

It cannot use the microphone, iCloud, Game Center or in-app purchase.

What changes when you turn it on

According to the same documentation, with Full Access a keyboard keeps everything above and may also:

• share a container with its app, in both directions;
• send keystrokes and other input to a server for processing;
• use Location Services and Contacts, with your permission;
• use iCloud to keep settings and its lexicon in step across devices.

That is why iOS warns you. The warning is the same for every keyboard, because iOS cannot know what a particular keyboard will do with the permission. It describes what becomes possible, not what any given keyboard actually does. Apple’s guidance to developers is that keyboards which do send data should keep it only as long as needed to provide the feature, and that a keyboard without open access is the way to provide ordinary keyboard functionality with the system’s privacy guarantee.

One thing Full Access never changes

In password fields and phone-number pads, iOS replaces every third-party keyboard with its own, with or without Full Access. Apple’s documentation describes this for secure text fields — the ones that show your typing as dots. So no third-party keyboard ever types your passwords.

What popular keyboards use it for

Each maker explains its own reasons. Here is what three of them say, in their own documentation.

Gboard

Google’s iPhone setup page says that with Full Access on you can use Google Search in the keyboard: your searches are sent to Google, and nothing else is shared. Gboard’s App Store listing adds that it sends usage statistics, and voice input if you use the microphone, and that other typing stays on the device.

Microsoft SwiftKey

Microsoft says SwiftKey’s keyboard requires Full Access on iOS, because its language models, personal learning and preferences are stored in the SwiftKey app rather than inside the keyboard, and the keyboard cannot read them without the permission. Microsoft states that granting it does not mean everything you type is transferred.

Pilcrow

Pilcrow is ours, so here is the detail. The Pilcrow keyboard contains no networking code at all. Not disabled, not opt-out: absent. So Full Access cannot give it network access, because there is nothing in it that could use the network. Typing, corrections, predictions, learning and every downloaded language work with the switch off. Turning it on adds exactly three things:

• haptic feedback under your fingers;
• the clipboard panel and its paste chip, which offers what you have just copied for a minute;
• the app’s view of your learned words, because the app can only read what the keyboard writes to the shared container when Full Access is on. With it off, the list is still yours to read and edit from inside the keyboard.

The Pilcrow app on your home screen — not the keyboard — reaches the internet for four things and no others: downloading language packs, asking the App Store whether a newer version exists, verifying a purchase, and sending a feedback report you chose to write. None of them carries what you type. The privacy policy sets each one out.

How to check and change it

1. Open Settings › General › Keyboard › Keyboards.
2. Tap the keyboard’s name.
3. Use the Allow Full Access switch. You can turn it off again at any time.

How to decide

Ask three questions of any keyboard before you flip the switch:

1. What does it say it needs Full Access for? A good answer is specific: search, haptics, a clipboard, syncing. A vague answer is a reason to wait.
2. Does it still work with Full Access off? If it does, try it that way first, and turn the switch on later only if you miss what it adds.
3. What does its own privacy policy say it sends, and to whom? The App Store privacy label is a starting point; the developer’s policy is the detail.

For Pilcrow, we recommend turning it on. It adds haptics, the clipboard panel and the app’s view of your learned words, and because the keyboard has no networking code, it cannot send what you type anywhere with the switch on or off. Everything else works with it off, so it stays your choice. If you are comparing keyboards on this point, Pilcrow vs SwiftKey and Pilcrow vs Gboard go into more detail.

Last checked October 2026 against Apple’s developer documentation and each maker’s published pages.

Sources

1. Apple Developer, Configuring open access for a custom keyboard
2. Apple Developer, Custom Keyboard (secure text fields and phone pads)
3. Google, Set up Gboard – iPhone & iPad; Gboard on the App Store
4. Microsoft, Why does my Microsoft SwiftKey Keyboard need Full Access in iOS?
5. Pilcrow, Privacy policy and Support