What Allow Full Access really means for iPhone keyboards

When you add a third-party keyboard, iOS asks whether to Allow Full Access. The system sheet sounds like you are handing over every keystroke. Sometimes you are. Sometimes you are not. The difference is the app, not the toggle label.

What Apple is actually asking

A keyboard without Full Access can still replace the system keyboard. It can insert text you type. It cannot open a network connection from the keyboard process, and it cannot share data with the containing app except in limited ways.

Full Access lets the keyboard talk to the network and to App Groups. That is how a theme pack syncs, and how an AI rewrite leaves the phone.

Apple’s wording is conservative on purpose. Treat the toggle as “this keyboard may use the network,” then read the developer’s privacy page.

BubbleText

BubbleText is a style keyboard. Autocorrect is on-device and free without Full Access. We ask for Full Access so color and font packs can sync after you buy them. We do not upload what you type.

If you never buy a pack, you can leave Full Access off and still use bubble text.

mindfulAI and AlterEgo

mindfulAI and AlterEgo send only the line you tap to rewrite. That request goes to our AWS proxy, then to a model, then back as a suggestion. There is no account. History stays on the device.

If you leave Full Access off, you can still type. You cannot get an AI rewrite, because that rewrite is a network call.

How to decide

1. Add the keyboard.
2. Type a message in Notes with Full Access off. Confirm it works.
3. Turn Full Access on only if you want the feature that needs it.
4. Remove the keyboard in Settings if you do not trust the developer.

We wrote this because our own support inbox keeps getting the same question, and because a lot of keyboard marketing pretends the toggle is meaningless. It is not. It is a permission. Use it like one.