Serious warnings 2 confirmed warnings. Checked: 400 reviews, the Android app’s code, the store listing and the privacy label.
From our automated analysis, 27 Oct 2026. Every label links to its evidence in the full report below.
This analysis describes version 8.11.1 of the app (the version number recorded inside the package we inspected), analyzed 2026-10-27 .
The store currently lists version 8.11.1, updated 2026-10-21.
Store screenshots supplied by the developer.
The Ultimate Custom Keyboard App!
Create your one-of-a-kind keyboard with 100,000+ photo, GIF, emoji, font, and color theme options.
Design Keyboard lets you personalize everything—from the background photo to keyboard fonts, emoji style, and even typing sound effects!
🔥 Key Features
💡 1. All-in-One Emoji Keyboard
Use 1000+ cute emojis, text emoticons, multi emojis, and kaomoji
Emoji categories include: Heart, Expression, Food, Animal, People & more!
Supports fun emoji combinations only available in Design Keyboard
🖼️ 2. Photo Keyboard & GIF Keyboard
DIY keyboard using your own photos or trending GIFs
Instantly search and apply themes like: Puppies, Kittens, Aesthetic, Space, Characters, and more!
🎨 3. 1500+ Stylish Keyboard Themes
Curated designer themes: iPhone Theme, Mukbang Theme, Sparkle Theme
Weekly new theme updates covering anime, neon, K-pop, minimal, pastel & more…
From the developer’s store description.
For developers and the curious
The evidence, sources, measurements and versions behind every label above.
Findings that met the published evidence standard.
Bundles 14 distinct ad networks / mediation SDKs: Amazon Publisher Services, AppLovin MAX, Chartboost, Fyber / Digital Turbine Exchange and 10 more
The package embeds several distinct advertising or mediation SDKs — a stack built for ad volume, not for a single house ad.
Package artefact
Appworthy
sha256:ac2243fa3a50e3a28999b7a8e8d403705b4a6c82450dce95a824515e279f8045Aggressive ad load: raised by 9 distinct reviewers (about 1 in 44 reviews we read)
Advertising volume or placement that interrupts normal use: ads between every action, unskippable or forced full-screen ads.
Specific evidence of a useful property, within the stated scope.
The developer's store data-safety disclosure states that data deletion can be requested; we have not seen a deletion control in the app's own text
The developer's data-safety disclosure on the store states that users can request deletion of their data, or the app's own text offers a way to delete the account. This restates what the developer declares; it is not a test of whether deletion works. Apple publishes no equivalent disclosure, so on an Apple-only listing only the app's own text can support it.
Open observations that have not cleared the evidence bar.
Ships a purchase screen ("Premium Features") with no dismiss, skip or "continue free" text anywhere in the package
This observation has not cleared the required evidence standard.
A paywall screen ships with no dismiss, skip or 'maybe later' affordance anywhere in the package, so the app's own text offers no way in without paying.
Package artefact
sha256:ac2243fa3a50e3a28999b7a8e8d403705b4a6c82450dce95a824515e279f8045Sells a subscription in-app but ships no cancel or manage-subscription text of its own, leaving the store's settings as the only exit
This observation has not cleared the required evidence standard.
Cancelling the subscription is blocked, hidden, multi-step, or simply does not take effect.
Package artefact
sha256:ac2243fa3a50e3a28999b7a8e8d403705b4a6c82450dce95a824515e279f8045Sells a randomised reward ("Coins") and states no drop rates or odds anywhere in the app's own text
This observation has not cleared the required evidence standard.
The app sells randomised rewards — crates, chests, packs, pulls — and states no drop rates or odds anywhere in its own text, so what the money buys is unknowable before paying.
Package artefact
sha256:ac2243fa3a50e3a28999b7a8e8d403705b4a6c82450dce95a824515e279f8045The app's own text says: "DesignKeyboard Level Up!"
This observation has not cleared the required evidence standard.
Advancement or competition is gated behind spending money rather than playing.
Package artefact
sha256:ac2243fa3a50e3a28999b7a8e8d403705b4a6c82450dce95a824515e279f8045The app's own text says: "*Ad-free use of all features is possible with purchase of the full version"
This observation has not cleared the required evidence standard.
The core of the app — not extras — sits behind payment, or previously-free function moved behind a paywall.
Package artefact
sha256:ac2243fa3a50e3a28999b7a8e8d403705b4a6c82450dce95a824515e279f8045Offers a trial ("Try now") and states no renewal price, renewal date or auto-renew notice anywhere in the app's own text
This observation has not cleared the required evidence standard.
The app's own screens offer a free trial without stating, beside it, what happens when the trial ends. Read this as context rather than as a charge: renewal terms are normally shown on the store's purchase sheet instead, which we cannot see, and we can only observe one kind of evidence for this — so it is shown, but never counted as a charge.
Package artefact
sha256:ac2243fa3a50e3a28999b7a8e8d403705b4a6c82450dce95a824515e279f8045The app's own text says: "Continue"
This observation has not cleared the required evidence standard.
The app's own screens offer a way past sign-up — guest access, skipping, or browsing before registering — rather than gating the product behind an account. The store's privacy disclosure is checked alongside it: that disclosure is self-reported, so it corroborates this credit rather than establishing it.
Package artefact
sha256:ac2243fa3a50e3a28999b7a8e8d403705b4a6c82450dce95a824515e279f8045The app's own text says: "Copied text is saved automatically to paste immediately where it is needed."
This observation has not cleared the required evidence standard.
The app's own copy describes working without a connection — offline mode, downloading for offline use, or content saved for later. Shown because readers filter on it; it is a feature, not a fairness property, and never counts for or against an app.
Package artefact
sha256:ac2243fa3a50e3a28999b7a8e8d403705b4a6c82450dce95a824515e279f8045400 reviews read for this analysis. Each observation keeps the sample and store it was based on.
When i used other apps to design my keyboard but they don't work and have a lot of adds and for payment except i tried design keyboard no adds and no payment all for free and my keyboard looks so cuteee
This app is super fun you can also create your own diy keybord its very fun to do it also give you some other emojis like this:๑•‿•๑ and you dont start with an add each time you go in there is only adds when you get a keyboard or finish…
so many ads...u cannot type directly coz have always ads...i already send the screenshot on gmail but no reply...still the ads is there...so annoying...😒😒
A sampled review illustrates one person’s experience. It does not establish a finding on its own.
“Not assessed” means we could not measure it. It is never a zero and never a pass.
Android package 8.11.1, scanned 27 Oct 2026. These describe that package, not the current store version.
Supporting measurements: not a complete list of possible harms or positives. Measurement vocabulary 1.4 · how these are measured
This analysis describes version 8.11.1 of the app (the version number recorded inside the package we inspected), analyzed 2026-10-27 .
The store currently lists version 8.11.1, updated 2026-10-21.
Each store’s release notes, as the developer wrote them. They are the developer’s words, not ours.
No release notes were provided for this version.
design-keyboardAssessed 2026-10-27 from 400 user reviews, the app's package, the store listing and its privacy label.
What the stores publish. Store ratings are the stores’ numbers, not Appworthy’s, and are never averaged across stores.
This assessment is produced automatically. Six independent signals are read — user reviews, SDKs in the app package, the app's own on-screen text, the app manifest, the store listing and the store privacy disclosure — and each candidate finding is filed under the sources that support it.
No charge stands on one kind of evidence — with one published exception. A finding is either a measured fact that anyone can reproduce (an ad SDK is in the package; every subscription bills weekly; the privacy label omits a tracker we can see), or it is an interpretation — and an interpretation needs independent sources to agree before it reaches the catch list. The exception is a harm only users can see: a charge may publish from reviews alone, as “Reported by N users”, once enough reviewers raise it to clear that charge’s own published bar. That agreement rule is what replaced the human reviewer, not a model’s confidence.
There is no overall score, on purpose. A 0–99 number was published here until 2026-09-15. It was withdrawn because it discriminated too weakly to be the instrument — 44.7% of every pair of apps tied — and because a single number is a verdict where a count is an observation. What publishes instead is a row of measurements, each of which says what was counted and, where we could not look, says that instead.
Findings under One source only are real reports we do not stand behind as findings. They are shown because withholding them entirely would hide a genuine complaint, and labelled because publishing them as charges would be an accusation off a single source.
Write to [email protected], or use the form. Name the finding, the app version and the evidence that needs correcting. Factual corrections are free and never depend on buying anything.