Gboard is the default keyboard for Pixel smartphones and many devices that use stock Android, but it’s not the only option out there. Recently, Gboard has been swept up in a privacy controversy highlighting how your data is used by Google for its own training and collection. The data that Google collects can be intercepted and tied to individual users. Luckily, you can disable some of those data-sharing settings.

But what if, down the line, Gboard changes its policy or privacy settings? Or we learn about additional ways Google sneakily collects your data from your keyboard? If that concerns you, consider using an open-source keyboard that runs completely on device, no data servers required. Unlike closed software, security experts can audit open-source programs, so vulnerabilities are found and patched quite quickly. As it happens, there are two solid open-source alternatives to Gboard. One is so like Gboard, you won’t even miss it. The second is as private as a keyboard gets.

FUTO Keyboard is a direct Gboard replacement

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

FUTO Keyboard is designed to be a direct Gboard replacement. It looks like Gboard, and it works like Gboard. But underneath, it’s completely open-source, free, and private. By default, none of your keystrokes leave your device.

FUTO includes on-device AI models for text prediction and voice typing. The text prediction model works completely offline and doesn't use any online servers. In my testing, it kept up with my typing, and the suggestions were more or less what you'd expect. For voice typing, the app uses a lightweight Whisper-based model, also running on-device, with no servers involved. In my testing, I found the default model to be a bit underwhelming when compared to Gboard. Downloading the highest-tier model resolved this issue, though, and I saw voice typing results similar to Gboard. (The English-244 voice model is a 280MB download.)

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

FUTO gets a lot more fun when you start customizing the settings and the layout. You can resize the keyboard to make it larger, add a permanent numbers row to the top, an arrow bar, and change the theme to your liking. There are also fine-tuning settings for users who like adjusting every bit of how their keyboard works. For example, there is a section on Long-Press Keys that lets you customize how the backspace long-press gesture works.

In my testing, I found that the FUTO keyboard offers a smoother, more reliable typing experience compared to Gboard. A small example is the spacebar gesture. In Gboard, you can move the cursor by swiping on the spacebar, but it’s a bit confusing for me. You hold it for a split second, and then swipe. In FUTO, swiping on the spacebar instantly moves the cursor, every single time. The downside to being completely private is, of course, that you lose out on cross-device support. Your personal dictionary, or clipboard, can’t sync between all your devices. While Gboard is a more complete package, FUTO's privacy features do make up for that loss.

HeliBoard is the Gboard alternative for security purists

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

HeliBoard has a rich open-source pedigree. It’s based on the old OpenBoard project, which itself was based on the pure Android AOSP keyboard, the original stock Android keyboard.

The times have changed, though, and HeliBoard has kept up, without sacrificing its open-source roots. The app promises a zero-exposure experience, asking for no network permissions whatsoever. As this is a purist’s keyboard, there are no AI features to speak of: no LLM transformer for text prediction, no AI voice typing model.

That said, all the basic features you’d expect from an Android keyboard are all here. You can add an optional number row to the top, and there’s support for gesture typing, along with an on-device clipboard (which can be disabled). You can customize the appearance as well. You can resize the keyboard, bring back the old Holo keyboard style, change icons, and change the color of the keyboard. (You can even use an image as the background.)

The only caveat to using HeliBoard is that it’s not available in the Google Play Store. Instead, you’ll have to download it from the F-Droid third-party app store that specializes in securely hosting free and open-source apps. But that’s easy to do, and once installed, you can explore other useful open-source apps like NewPipe, my preferred way of watching YouTube ad-free on Android.

Microsoft's Windows apology tour continues. After introducing sweeping changes to the Start menu and the taskbar, Microsoft's sights now turn to the infamous Windows Search box. It's no secret Windows Search is bloated with ads and web pages, among other results you likely don't want. Personally, I switched to using the PowerToys Command Palette for all my search needs. But now, Microsoft is slowly testing an updated Search Box that prioritizes local files and apps and doesn't take a century to load. If you're in the Windows Insider program, you can get in line to try the following new changes.

Windows Search has a redesigned UI focused on local search

Credit: Microsoft

Windows Search no longer shows a "Recommended" feed of web content and suggestions. Bring up Search, and what you'll see is a clean list of your recent searches. When you start typing, Microsoft will now prioritize local searches first. That means local apps, files, and folders will show up first and faster. Microsoft is also updating Search with broader parameters, so even if you misspell an app name, it should still show up in the list.

The results page also features an updated design. The results on the left have more breathing room now and show additional context, such as file type, when it was modified, and so on. You'll also see a preview of the file and metadata once you select a result, with better buttons for main actions like "Open." Microsoft is also focusing on reliability, promising a drop in crashes and random glitches. We'll only know how well that really works after testing this out for some time.

The broader search integration isn't completely gone here, however. You'll see a web results section below the local results, though this section also gets a redesign. Before, web search showed a promoted post at the top, hiding the actual result or answer until you scrolled down. Microsoft now shows the direct result at the top, and pushes the promos down below.

You can disable web and Microsoft Store suggestions in search

Credit: Microsoft

Finally, there are distinct toggles in Windows Settings to disable the entire web search and Microsoft Store suggestions section, so Windows Search can focus purely on surfacing local files and quickly launching apps. Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Show Suggested Search Results and disable the toggles for Web Searches and Microsoft Store.

YouTube is great—except for the annoying, unskippable ads. And after the introduction of YouTube Premium, it seems like the number of unskippable ads for free accounts keeps going up. If you don’t want to sit through three ads just so you can watch your video, it might be time to try a different approach.

There are several great third-party YouTube apps and tools that will give you a great ad-free YouTube experience—and they’ll do it for free.

YouTube Premium and Premium Lite

Let’s get the obvious one out of the way first. YouTube Premium is the best and only way to remove all ads from YouTube videos on all the platforms that you use (including smart TVs). No other tool will offer that.

But it does come at a cost, and that cost keeps rising. As of writing, you can snag a subscription for $15.99 per month. If your household would all benefit from a subscription, you could consider a YouTube Premium Family plan for $26.99 a month, which lets six users share the same ad-free experience. But, like Netflix, YouTube Premium also deters password sharing, and it only works if all the members live at the same residential address as the account manager.

YouTube also has a cheaper $7.99 per month plan now in the form of YouTube Premium Lite, which promises an ad-free viewing experience for most non-music YouTube videos.

You can also try subscribing to YouTube Premium from a country where the rates are low. In countries like Argentina, India, and Turkey, YouTube Premium costs less than $2 per month. Install a VPN, change the location, and try your luck subscribing to the cheaper plans.

DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo is quickly becoming the anti-AI browser. Unlike Chrome, the privacy-focused browser lets you choose exactly how many AI features show up in DuckDuckGo Search and the browser (there's an option to disable all AI features as well).

Now, the company has integrated a YouTube ad blocker directly into the browser on the desktop and on mobile apps. DuckDuckGo is directly integrating community filters from uBlock Origin, making sure to cover a wide net of ads on the platform. And because there is no third-party extension, you don't need to worry about ad-blocking extensions being deprecated (as in Chrome). DuckDuckGo should be able to block most of the pre-roll and mid-roll ads on YouTube.

And the feature is enabled by default for the desktop and the iOS apps. If you're on Android, you'll need to enable it manually. Make sure that you're running the latest version of DuckDuckGo and then go to Settings > Ad Blocking, and enable the ad blocker.

NewPipe

NewPipe is perhaps the best way to watch YouTube ad-free on Android. This is not a modded YouTube app. Instead, it’s a separate, free, and open-source player for YouTube. NewPipe is lightweight, but offers the features you care most about: background playback; picture-in-picture; and, of course, no ads.

While the app isn’t available in the Play Store, you can directly download the APK installer from their website, or you can find the app on the F-Droid app store—an alternate to Google Play Store that hosts free and open-source apps.

The app has an option to import your subscriptions, but you can’t sign in using your YouTube account.

SkyTube

SkyTube is another free and open-source third-party YouTube app for Android, just like NewPipe. It also offers the basic features you’ll want, including ad-blocking and background payback.

The downside is that SkyTube is a view-only app; you can’t sign into your YouTube account, so there’s no sync feature. The app does have its own feature for channel subscriptions and bookmarks. On the other hand, there’s a version of SkyTube called SkyTube Extra, which is also free, and supports the official YouTube player and casting features.

LibreTube

You can think of LibreTube (also Android only) as a NewPipe app but with a modern interface. It has a bottom tab bar, updated icons, and an overall smooth operation. This level of fit and finish is something that’s usually lacking in other popular YouTube apps. It supports SponsorBlock, so sponsored sections can be skipped as well. Plus, it has extra features like chapter selection. This, too, is a free and open-source client.

Firefox Browser with uBlock Origin

Unlike Chrome on Android, Firefox actually supports extensions, and a single extension can change your entire YouTube experience. If you don’t mind using YouTube on the web (you can’t access it offline), you can install the popular ad-blocker uBlock Origin to automatically block all ads on YouTube.

Download the uBlock Origin add-on, then go to Menu > Add-ons > and enable uBlock Origin.

Brave Browser

If you don’t want to use an extension, you can use a browser that has a built-in ad-blocker. Now, you’ll find many browsers that do this on the Play Store and App Store, but it would be best to use a trusted browser here. Brave Browser is a highly regarded privacy browser that also comes with a great ad-block feature that works on Android, iPhone, and PC. As long as you have the Shields Up feature enabled for YouTube, you won’t see ads in your videos anymore.

AdGuard for iPhone

Thanks to the way iOS is set up, there’s no easy way to install an unofficial YouTube app like you can on Android. But if you’re okay using YouTube in Safari, you can remove ads using Safari extensions. Here too, you’ll find multiple trusted apps that do the job. AdGuard is a good option, as they have a specific feature built-in for removing all YouTube ads. After the extension is set up, go to YouTube.com, tap the Share button, and choose the Block YouTube Ads (by AdGuard) option.

SmartTube for Smart TVs

So you've blocked YouTube ads in your browser, and on your smartphone. But what's more annoying than sitting through long, unskippable ads when you're listening to lo-fi music? Thankfully, there is a workaround here. If you have an Android-based smart TV or streaming box (Amazon Fire TV devices sold after October 2025 aren't supported), you can simply install the SmartTube app (previously called SmartTubeNext) to act as a YouTube replacement. You will have to manually sideload the app, but once that’s done, you can say goodbye to all the ads.

SponsorBlock

SponsorBlock is both a browser extension and a service embedded in a couple of YouTube replacement apps we’ve covered above (like LibreTube). It does one thing, and one thing only: crowdsources data for sponsor segments in videos, and lets you automatically skip through those sections. Chances are, if you’re watching a remotely popular channel, SponsorBlock will recognize the sponsor segment. If you can’t stand watching another 45-second ad for Squarespace, this is the extension for you.

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Apple's next big update for iPhones, iOS 27, is a big one. The upgrade, which is currently in beta testing, ships with features like Siri AI, new AI image editing tools, and notable updates for AirPods. We finally have a custom EQ (something users have demanded for a decade), a new way to adjust Adaptive Audio mode, among other changes. If you own AirPods, iOS 27 is going to be a major update.

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As of this article, these features are available in the iOS 27 beta, and they might change or evolve before the final public release in the fall. While anyone can install the iOS 27 beta, I recommend at least waiting for the public beta release, which should be around the corner. To test the new AirPods features, you'll also have to upgrade to the AirPods beta firmware (from AirPods > AirPods Beta Updates). Once you are running the latest software, here's what you'll find:

Apple added a newly designed AirPods settings menu

The AirPods settings menu has always left something to be desired. It's a bit clunky and not particularly accessible, which means a lot of these features are likely going unnoticed by many AirPods users. That changes with iOS 27. While you still head to Settings > AirPods to find the options, the interface is now modern, easier to access, and more compact.

In iOS 27, you’ll see a visual preview of your AirPods and their battery life, along with the name, mode selector, and a volume slider. Below, all the features are now arranged in their own sections, like Audio & Routing, Hearing Health, Controls & Gestures, and so on.

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AirPods finally have EQ options

Credit: Apple/YouTube

Most Bluetooth earbuds on the market come with some kind of customizable EQ—except, of course, AirPods. There's a basic EQ setting that applies to the entire Music app, but these options are barebones, and don't let you fine-tune how your AirPods sound. With iOS 27, Apple is finally planning to change this.

If you have AirPods with Apple's H2 chip, go to Settings > AirPods > Audio & Routing > Equalizer in iOS 27. Here, switch to Custom. Apple will play a preview of a recently played song, with an option to change the EQ in three sections: "Low," "Mid," and "High." From here, move the waveform that appears on-screen up and down to tune the sound how you like it.

Adaptive mode is now more easily customizable

AirPods with Active Noise Cancellation have three modes: "Transparency," "Adaptive," and, of course, "Noise Cancellation." Transparency lets in environmental noise, while Noise Cancellation blocks as much noise as possible. Adaptive sits somewhere in the middle, blending Transparency and Noise Cancellation depending on what's going on around you.

This is great in theory, but in practice, it didn’t always work for me. In my experience, Adaptive lets in too much environmental noise to be useful. For you, it might be the opposite. To mitigate this, Apple lets you control how much audio Adaptive lets in, but the option is buried in Settings, making it easy to miss. As of iOS 27 beta 3, Apple now has an easy-to-use slider to control Adaptive Audio. Under "Listening Mode" in AirPods settings, you can move Adaptive Audio's slider left or right to make it sound closer to Transparency or Noise Cancellation.

Smaller changes coming to AirPods with iOS 27

There are three additional small yet notable features for AirPods that Apple is adding to iOS 27:

• Name Recognition: iOS 27 expanded Hearing Health for AirPods, and now supports Name Recognition. If you’re hard of hearing, this feature can let you know when someone says your name. Name Recognition is now supported globally in over 50 countries.

• Precision Finding via Apple Watch: Your AirPods Pro 3 case supports Ultra Wide Band precision finding. And with the new watchOS 27 Find My app, it's now possible to use precise finding for your AirPods directly from your Apple Watch.

• Talk to Siri AI directly: If you have an iPhone 15 Pro or newer, you can chat with Siri AI through your AirPods.

On Tuesday, Meta announced its new Muse Image model, the first release from "Meta Superintelligence Labs." With the new image model, Meta promises to create hyperrealistic images, posters, and even videos—once Muse Video launches, anyway. All of that is par for the course for a major AI company. But as Wired reports, there’s something weird going on with how it integrates with public Instagram profiles.

How Meta's new Instagram image generation feature works

By default, anyone using Meta AI can create an image using the likeness of a public Instagram account, which they can then share via chat, Stories, or the Instagram feed. This doesn’t have to be a celebrity or a famous person, either (in fact, some celebrity profiles are restricted from this feature). So long as it's public, your personal Instagram profile is fair game here. Google has a similar feature, but it’s limited to the user themself, and it only works after an approval process. There are no such guardrails here.

This is quite a big privacy issue. Every public profile is automatically opted into this new feature, without their consent. If you're using Meta AI features on Instagram, you're in on this as well. For Meta, the distinction is clear. If you’re posting anything publicly, they can use it on their AI platform. Of course, creating an image out of two different faces is nothing new. You can just upload two profile images and get the same effect. But Meta is making this trivially easy on a very large scale.

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

I tested this out in a couple of ways. First, I tried to make an image of me in a fight scene with Robert Downey Jr. The AI refused, perhaps because of image rights. Then, I asked Meta AI to create an image with me and my colleague Pranay Parab. That wasn’t possible because he has a private profile (more on that later).

Lastly, I asked it to create an image of me having coffee with my friend Dhaval, who owns a cafe, and has a public profile. That image was created in just under a minute, and was based on recent images uploaded by Dhaval and me on our respective profiles (both a couple of years old at this point). It's obviously easy to use, but can you turn it off?

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

How to stop people from using your Instagram profile in their AI images

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

If you have a private Instagram profile, this isn’t something you need to worry about—beyond a mutual taking your photos for their own AI usage. If you have a public profile, you need to disable a setting that lets Meta use your profile data for Meta AI and Reels generation.

Open the Instagram app on your iPhone, go to your Profile and tap the three-lined Menu button in the top-right corner. Go to Sharing and Reuse and navigate to the section called Allow people to reuse your content on Instagram and with AI features at Meta. Here, disable the Posts and Reels feature.

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

The good news is that this does work. I tried it on my Instagram coffee page that I rarely use. When I was logged into my personal profile on Meta, I asked Meta AI to create an image of me brewing coffee using my coffee page handle, and it refused, saying it doesn’t have the right to do that. This, of course, should be the default.