Fcitx5 for Android

Fcitx5 for Android is a port of Fcitx 5, the input method framework many Linux desktops use to type Chinese and other languages. Its README describes it as the “Fcitx5 input method framework and engines ported to Android.” It is made by a group credited as the Fcitx5 for Android Contributors, has been in development since 2021, and still uses 0.x version numbers; 0.1.3 came out in July 2026. On the phone the keyboard is simply called Fcitx5.

It is first of all a Chinese keyboard. If you type in Portuguese or English only, see the section on Latin languages before installing.

Input methods

Built into this APK, all for Simplified Chinese:

• Pinyin and Shuangpin, with a bundled dictionary and language model for predicting phrases.
• Wubi, Wubi Pinyin, Ziranma and Dianbaoma tables.
• Conversion between Simplified and Traditional characters, quick phrases, a Unicode character search, and emoji and symbol pickers.

The README and the store listings also name Cangjie as built in, but the build script removes it, together with three other tables. Like other tables, it can be imported from a file, and Pinyin dictionaries can be imported as .scel, .txt or .dict files.

Other languages come as plugins, separate apps that add an engine:

For Portuguese, English and other Latin languages

There is one Latin layout, English QWERTY, and the README notes the layout is “not customizable yet”. Long-pressing a letter shows its accented forms, so á, à, â, ã, é, ê, í, ó, ô, õ, ú and ç are all reachable. Word hints are on by default but use only an English dictionary, and we found no automatic capitalization in the code; it is an open request. The app’s own menus are in English, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Chinese.

For everyday Portuguese typing, a keyboard built for Latin languages such as HeliBoard fits better. Fcitx5 makes sense if you type Chinese, or switch between Chinese and English, on the same keyboard.

Clipboard and other defaults

From the settings code of this version:

• Clipboard history is on: it keeps the last 10 entries, plus any you pin, and offers a just-copied item as a suggestion for 30 seconds. Text that the copying app marks as sensitive, such as a password, is masked.
• Vibration and key sounds follow the system setting; the voice input button is off.
• 11 themes, custom themes with a background image, and dynamic colours on Android 12 and later.
• Physical keyboards work too, with a floating candidate window; much of 0.1.3 fixed key combinations on phones with built-in keyboards.

What goes online

Nothing. The app declares no internet permission, the Cloud Pinyin module, which would look up phrases online, is switched off in the build, and all dictionaries are in the APK; the Chinese language model alone is about 26 megabytes. When the app crashes, it shows the log on screen instead of sending it anywhere. Our scan found no trackers.

About this file

• This is the project’s own GitHub release of 0.1.3 for 64-bit ARM, byte for byte. F-Droid builds the app reproducibly and distributes the same signed file. The README: “APKs downloaded from GitHub Release/F-Droid/Jenkins have the same signature, which means they’re compatible when upgrading, but Google Play’s do not.”
• The 45.9 MB file runs on Android 6.0 and later, on 64-bit ARM phones only, and declares 3 permissions: vibration, notifications for setup reminders and import progress, and the app’s own permission for talking to its plugins.
• Fcitx5 for Android is licensed under the LGPL-2.1 or later, as its source files say; F-Droid lists it as LGPL-2.1-only. The Fcitx engines and libraries it bundles are under LGPL and GPL licences, and smaller parts under the MIT, Apache-2.0, Boost and BSD licences, as the project lists them. The dictionary and language-model files, which come from the Fcitx project’s data downloads, carry no licence statement of their own.
• The screenshots are from the project’s README and show Chinese input; the emoji picker is from 2022.

CPU types in this build: arm64-v8a (64-bit ARM, almost every phone since 2017).

Versions currently kept in the F-Droid repository. We host and check only the newest one.