Privacy @lemmy.ml O_R_I_O_N @lemm.ee 2mo ago

Android keyboard

Hey guys, im just got rid of gboard and im already missing the autocorrect and swipe to type features. I know there has to be a privacy friendly option out there. Thank you for your help; im fat fingering every other key, pls save me

44 comments

FUTO Keyboard is hands down the best option.

If you have philosophical objections to the FUTO license, then your options are Heliboard and Florisboard. Heliboard is currently better, but Florisboard has promise.
- FUTO: the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog
  
  ... I was planning on testing them all here but that's so good I'll think I'll stop there! I see from recent reviews they are working on improving swipe even more :D thank you so much!
  
  Please pay the licensing fee for ongoing development if you plan to use for an extended period👍
- Giving this a try myself. Interesting that it's in the Play Store but not F-Droid.
  
  AFAICT their license does not fulfill the OSI definition and is therefore ineligible for inclusion in the main F-Droid repo.
  
  They have their own F-Droid repo:
  
  https://app.futo.org/fdroid/repo/
  
  The repo is also pre-included in clients such as Droid-ify, which I use anyway because I like it better than the official client.
- Doesn't even detect I am glide typing about half the time. Unusable on my Google Pixel 4a.
  
  Which one of the three I suggested?
  
  FUTO is definitely a bit more resource hungry. Try Heliboard, you need to add a separate library to enable swiping, but it's definitely way lighter.
- Thank you for this recommendation, it's exactly what I was looking for to get me off of GBoard.
- I've been trying it but the swipe to text is absolutely atrocious I spend 90% of my time going back and correcting.
- I like the FUTO keyboard, but it's just so annoying that it doesn't support multi-lingual typing and the swipe just isn't as good as Gboard.
  
  It does support multilingual typing. Rather recent addition.
I really like heliboard. It works without network permissions, has autocorrect, and can do emojis
- Looks tempting but the repo has active issues going back 2 years without being resolved. I'll still probably give it a go tho, seems a popular opinion, thanks
  
  I've been using it without major caveats since October last year. Even tried the proprietary swiping library you can install (it uses the Gboard one iirc, but OFC it can't do shenanigans since it's isolated by the app and not connected to the internet)
- I cannot see it in the Play Store.
  
  f droid
Heliboard.

You can couple FUTO speech.
- Well, I second Futo (for the keyboard, not speech). Heliboard is laggy as hell on y redmi.
If you want to try something totally different, I can recommend Thumb-key. There's a bit of a learning curve, but once you get used to it, it can be quite fast to type with.
- WTF! That's SO weird! I have to try it xD thanks
  
  Another good part is that nobody wants to use your phone, since they can't type with it 😅
Florisboard is also amazing. One of a very few that dont actually track what you type. The other one i know of with no tracking is anysoftkeyboard.
- I've used both and liked them a lot. Florisboard is what I'm using right now. I like how it can use it's own clipboard that's separate from the system clipboard other apps can access.
Heliboard is decent
I use Gboard but have blocked its Internet access, which is possible on Graphene OS.
- I think I should install grapheneOS regardless, thank you
Heliboard would be my recommendation. Been using it for more than a year now. Started using it when OpenBoard was basically dead in the water and it was merely a fork rather than its own thing and I can safely say it's the best privacy friendly keyboard I've used. Tried so many, FUTO, FlorisBoard but I found Heliboard to be the best. If you want Swipe-to-type features then you can download a proprietary library from the github of Heliboard iirc and load it in the settings of Heliboard.

Oh and did I mention it's very customizable? Oh yeah. I think you'll love it, give it a try :D
I use helioboard and floris board for other languages. Been liking it, very customizable. I changed the spacing on the keyboard to fit my fingers, so i make less mistakes.

I miss inserting gifs from gboard. Does anyone have a solution to that?
Anyone got a FOSS keyboard that doesn't suck AND can type in Japanese? I was using Gboard with wifi off for almost a year, but switched recently to Fctix + Anthy (didn't even know Fctix had Android keyboards!) but the typing kinda sucks (click suggestion and doesn't add a space after the word, accidentally slide on space so I start typing within a word) and it doesn't do autocorrect.

Mozc is so old it literally doesn't work on newer Android versions.

I checked Floris and Heliboard, and neither support it 🙁
- I was too looking for a Japanese keyboard as a new Japanese learner. None of them seem to support it yet.
  
  Fctix has been kind of a blessing to me, since I don't own a PC sadly. I agree the typing kinda sucks, it has less functionality. But as for space after a selected suggestion word you can configure that behavior in the settings.
  
  Anyways I do hope the Japanese keyboard input will be supported on the more optimized keyboards eventually, if you find anything better before I do please let me know!
  
  Felt that. I definitely miss having a kana flick keyboard on my phone, I prefer it to qwerty conversion. I especially needed a good keyboard cause I was using FOSS apps to do my Wanikani reviews on my phone (Smouldering Durtles).
  
  If someone does make something good, I'll try to notify you, or make a notice in the Japanese learning communities on Lemmy 😉
I just use Gboard and block network
- Another user said they used GrapheneOS to block network, what's your method?
  
  Same here. But I believe it is possible with netguard as well, maybe other apps as well
I really like Unexpected Keyboard. Doesn't have swipe or gifs. But I love that all the symbols are available on the main keypad. You just click-swipe for each one.
tried 'em all and they all suck. it's possible there are options that work for monolingual people, but for simultaneously using 3-4 languages without annoying switching back and forth, there is no alternative.

since android 15 you can disable network access to any app and that's how I run gboard, the only google app I have on my mobile devices.
If you are exploring, I'd suggest giving Unexpected Keyboard a try. You might like it even though there is no autocorrect.

44 comments