Privacy
Every row on the Privacy screen: on-device learning, incognito, Android backup, and the one button that clears learned data.
The Privacy screen is four groups, in this order: the way into the permissions inventory, on-device learning and incognito, Android’s own backup opt-in, and the one button that clears learned data. Nothing else. This page is the field reference; for the reasoning and the rest of the privacy story, start at Privacy at a glance.
Options
Section titled “Options”Permissions
Section titled “Permissions”| Setting | Control | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Permissions | Opens a sub-screen | n/a |
An unnamed group holding one navigation row, sitting above everything else on the screen: “See what the keyboard can reach, and give or take back a permission”. It opens the permissions inventory, which is a screen of its own and has its own page here, Permissions. Nothing on this row is a setting, so there’s nothing to reset.
On-device learning
Section titled “On-device learning”| Setting | Control | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Learn from typing | Toggle | On |
| Add words to the system dictionary | Toggle | Off |
| Expand dictionary shortcuts | Toggle | Off |
| Incognito mode | Toggle | Off |
| Follow private browsing | Toggle | On |
Learn from typing is the master switch for the on-device word and word-pair lexicon; turning it off stops new learning without deleting anything already learned. Add words to the system dictionary additionally writes learned words to Android’s own personal dictionary (System Settings → Languages & input → Dictionary) so other keyboards and the platform spell checker see them too. It’s the one setting in this group that writes outside the app, which is why it defaults off even though the keyboard’s own learning already covers the same ground. Expand dictionary shortcuts reads that same system dictionary the other way: type a shortcut you’ve defined there (say “omw”) and it offers the full phrase (“on my way”) as a suggestion.
Incognito mode and Follow private browsing are covered in full, including exactly what pausing learning and clipboard capture means, on Incognito & secure fields. Worth knowing here is that Follow private browsing defaults to on, the opposite of what its neighbor “Incognito mode” does, and that two related toggles, Pause learning and Pause clipboard capture (both on by default), live on a separate screen, WM KeyboardToolsIncognito, not on this one. “Follow private browsing” itself also appears on that Tools screen; it’s the same setting shown in both places, not a second copy.
Android backup
Section titled “Android backup”| Setting | Control | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Back up with Android | Toggle | Off |
Back up with Android folds the keyboard into Android’s own backup and phone-to-phone transfer system. Off by default, so nothing this keyboard stores is copied anywhere until you turn it on. Once on, settings, themes, layouts, snippets, learned words, sticker and icon packs, and plugins are all included, and so are any saved API keys (Translate, AI tools, and the rest). Left out, because the keyboard can fetch them again on its own: voice and AI models, downloaded dictionaries, and emoji-keyword packs. A cloud backup is only made on devices that can encrypt it with your screen lock.
This is a different screen from the sibling Backup & restore item on the Settings home screen (route backup), which exports and imports a settings file by hand and never touches Google at all. See Backup & restore for both paths side by side, and the Backup & restore reference for that screen’s own fields.
Your data
Section titled “Your data”A single button, Clear learned words: no toggle, no confirmation prompt. Tapping it immediately deletes four files: your word and word-pair lexicon, your emoji-usage history, autocorrect’s revert memory (which corrections you undid), and your Chinese/Japanese/Cantonese pick history. It does not touch the language-mix tracker that remembers which language you tend to reach for when mixing languages.
This is the only bulk clear on this screen. Personal dictionary entries, clipboard history, and downloads each have their own per-item controls elsewhere. See Your data on device for the complete map of where every other category’s clear control actually lives.
Details & edge cases
Section titled “Details & edge cases”- “Clear learned words” is one bulk action, not a per-category picker. There’s no dialog letting you choose which of the four files to wipe: tapping the button deletes all four at once, instantly, with no undo.
- “Follow private browsing” isn’t two settings. The row here and the row of the same name under WM KeyboardToolsIncognito both read and write
autoIncognito; flip it in either place and the other reflects the change. - Saved API keys are included in an Android backup, not excluded the way large downloads are. If that matters to you, use Backup & restore’s manual export instead, which never leaves the device.
- A cloud backup needs an encryptable screen lock. On a device without one, turning “Back up with Android” on has nothing to actually back up into: Android’s own backup system requires it.
- The footer caption names the whole network side. The screen’s own note reads: “Typing works fully on this device. The word lists, prediction, autocorrect, transliteration and emoji search are part of the app, and none of them needs a network connection. The app has no telemetry and no analytics. Only a tool uses the network, and only at the moment that you press it: translate, weather, web search, image search, GIFs, stickers, dictionary lookup and the AI tools. You can turn off each one of them on the Tools screen.” It used to name only the weather tool, which undersold it. See Privacy at a glance for the same list with per-tool detail, plus the few fetches that happen without you pressing a tool.
- No edition differences. Every setting on this screen behaves the same on both the full and lite builds.
Related pages
Section titled “Related pages”- Privacy at a glance — what leaves the device and what never does, with the receipts.
- Permissions: the field list for the sub-screen the top row on this page opens.
- Your data on device — everything stored locally, where, and every way to clear it, not just the one button on this screen.
- Incognito & secure fields — incognito mode, private-browsing detection, and password/secure-field handling in full.
- Network policy — the complete tool-by-tool table of what reaches the network and why.
- Backup & restore — the guide covering both this screen’s “Back up with Android” and the separate manual export/import screen.
- Backup & restore reference — the field list for that separate screen.
- Tool settings reference — the master tool list; it’s still an outline page. The “Tools / Incognito” toggles that live outside this screen are covered above and in Incognito & secure fields; Clipboard’s own settings are on its tool guide.