GBoard replacement?
from VinesNFluff@pawb.social to degoogle@lemmy.ml on 07 Jul 2024 08:06
https://pawb.social/post/11645932

Title.

I’m not sure I’m ready to go all “lineageOS full degoogle” on my phone because some rather necessary day-to-day apps for me will freak out if I have root, let alone a modified OS. Buuuut GBoard has gotten right in my tit, and now they’re offering nightmarish AI generated emoji and I’m like “NO”. So.

I don’t really care about predictive text or swipe-typing or any of that stuff, I mostly just type normally.

The only nice-to-haves that might entice me would be support for one-handed mode and a configurable keyboard layout.

#degoogle

threaded - newest

NaibofTabr@infosec.pub on 07 Jul 2024 08:12 next collapse

Yes, HeliBoard is an excellent, open source keyboard app.

VinesNFluff@pawb.social on 07 Jul 2024 08:14 next collapse

Sounds promising enough, will take a look.

fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com on 07 Jul 2024 23:47 collapse

In case you didn’t see coment responses, adding swipe and FUTO Voice are great additions.

noorbeast@lemmy.zip on 07 Jul 2024 08:27 next collapse

This…plus you can ad swipe support.

MalReynolds@slrpnk.net on 07 Jul 2024 11:54 collapse

and voice with futo

[deleted] on 07 Jul 2024 22:45 collapse
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fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com on 07 Jul 2024 23:45 collapse

Hold space

[deleted] on 08 Jul 2024 02:07 collapse
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perishthethought@lemm.ee on 07 Jul 2024 15:24 next collapse

This is great. I am trying heliboard right now and it works well. Thanks!

N4CHEM@lemmy.ml on 07 Jul 2024 16:00 collapse

Another vote for HeliBoard, I’ve been using it for months and it’s great and under active development.

friendly_ghost@beehaw.org on 07 Jul 2024 08:17 next collapse

I’ve been very happy with OpenBoard. Accessing the emoji menu took a little getting used to (you hold down the enter button until it pops up), but it’s great overall.

impure9435@kbin.run on 15 Jul 2024 22:07 collapse

OpenBoard isn't updated anymore, use HeliBoard instead (it's a fork that's actively maintained). It's also on F-Droid https://f-droid.org/en/packages/helium314.keyboard/

Dave@lemmy.nz on 07 Jul 2024 08:17 next collapse

I’ve struggled with keyboards. Some to try out are OpenBoard, Heliboard, and Florisboard. All are on F-Droid.

But my favourite so far is FUTO Keyboard. Not without issues but I like it the best. It’s not on F-Droid but you can use Obtanium to keep it up to date from the GitHub releases.

If you like weird shit, check out Thumb-key. It’s on F-Droid and made by one of the Lemmy developers.

Blisterexe@lemmy.zip on 07 Jul 2024 08:59 next collapse

Futo is great, thumb-key is painful

Dave@lemmy.nz on 07 Jul 2024 09:16 collapse

FUTO keyboard managed to be very similar to OpenBoard and Heliboard, while solving some issues I had with those (buggy quirks that may well be hardware or software specific).

I used Thumb-key for a few months, to give it a real go, but I’m not convinced I ever got my speed up. Could do about 25wpm at my peak but I can do another 10wpm on a more normal keyboard (with word suggestions) and I don’t think I’m particularly fast. Not sure what’s normal for a mobile keyboard.

toothpaste_sandwich@feddit.nl on 07 Jul 2024 11:49 collapse

I have the same experience with Thumb-Key, though I keep thinking maybe I just didn’t try long enough…

muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee on 07 Jul 2024 09:37 next collapse

Futo keyboard isnt on fdroid not happy about that really hope they start publishing it there tho.

noodlejetski@lemm.ee on 07 Jul 2024 10:33 next collapse

they probably won’t serve it on the official repo, because it’s not really open source. you can look up their own repository and add it to F-droid, though.

bloubz@lemmygrad.ml on 07 Jul 2024 11:12 next collapse

Why would you want a F-Droid-signed app when you can have the app directly from the dev?

Ephera@lemmy.ml on 07 Jul 2024 15:18 collapse

F-Droid is like a Linux distribution. And basically, the idea behind that is that open-source means nothing in terms of trustworthiness, unless you compile the source code yourself. The source code is what can be audited, whereas the binaries that the developer provides could be filled with malware and you’d never know about it.

Now, compiling everything yourself is complex and time-consuming, so this is where F-Droid / distros come in. Rather than trusting each and every app developer, you merely need to trust the F-Droid team.

bloubz@lemmygrad.ml on 07 Jul 2024 16:50 collapse

Yes that’s the thing. I trust my guys at FUTO and Rossman, and the other devs I use the apps from. But I don’t know the F-Droid team

Ephera@lemmy.ml on 07 Jul 2024 15:21 collapse

FUTO cannot decide to publish on the F-Droid main repository. The F-Droid team compiles all the apps that get published there themselves, so they decide what to publish. Well, and the F-Droid team will not publish FUTO keyboard, because it’s not open-source.

JustMarkov@lemmy.ml on 07 Jul 2024 10:40 next collapse

But my favourite so far is FUTO Keyboard.

Note, that FUTO Keyboard is proprietary, as its code is being distributed under source-available license: gitlab.futo.org/keyboard/latinime/-/…/LICENSE.md

Dave@lemmy.nz on 07 Jul 2024 11:26 collapse

OP never asked for OSS 🙂. It’s not big tech and has no network access so should suit the de-google theme.

On FUTO, they are using the term “Source First” (which they invented) because they pretty much think that OSI is funded by big tech and serves their purposes. My exaggerated paraphrasing but you can read their views here.

Basically they think the current model doesn’t work, and they are experimenting with a different take. I don’t have strong views but I’m happily using the keyboard while I wait and see if it works for them.

EddoWagt@feddit.nl on 07 Jul 2024 11:20 next collapse

No multilingual typing with FUTO though right, or did I miss something?

Dave@lemmy.nz on 07 Jul 2024 11:32 collapse

As far as I can tell, just the switch menu (hold space), not multilingual. I didn’t even realise it was a thing until you mentioned it (in my defence I only speak one language).

tht@mstdn.social on 07 Jul 2024 11:35 collapse

@Dave @EddoWagt they just need to add a language switch, I doubt its that hard

Dave@lemmy.nz on 07 Jul 2024 11:40 next collapse

Is that what multilingual is? If you hold space you can easily switch to any of the languages you added in settings. I thought multilingual was the ability to type in any of your added languages without having to toggle between them?

EddoWagt@feddit.nl on 07 Jul 2024 12:18 collapse

Yeah that’s exactly it for me, I regularly switch between Dutch and English, so having to switch with a button is a nuisance. GBoard allows me to switch without any input

EddoWagt@feddit.nl on 07 Jul 2024 12:26 collapse

They have a language switch button actually if you hold the space-bar, but I need it to be without having to switch manually

tmpod@lemmy.pt on 07 Jul 2024 12:26 next collapse

While it’s not on the main F-Droid repo, they distribute it in their own repository: app.futo.org/fdroid/repo

VinesNFluff@pawb.social on 08 Jul 2024 21:14 collapse

Seems you tested a lot of options. I’ve been testing Heliboard since the first reply I got, but uhhh…

Would any of those you tested happen to support multilingual typing? As in, detecting when you switch languages without having to tap a button? I alternate between English and Portuguese a lot and having to tap something to switch is a nuisance.

Dave@lemmy.nz on 08 Jul 2024 22:32 collapse

I just spent ages looking into this and the answer is… Heliboard!

Go to languages and disable the option to use the system language. Then enable, say, Portuguese. Once enabled, tap on the name of the language and there is a Multilingual option to add another language (e.g. English).

I don’t use this open so can’t speak to it’s quality, but give it a go and let me know how you get on!

CC: @EddoWagt@feddit.nl

VinesNFluff@pawb.social on 09 Jul 2024 01:05 next collapse

Well I’ll be.

I’ll test it more extensively, still, neat!

EddoWagt@feddit.nl on 09 Jul 2024 09:51 collapse

No way, why is that so hidden? I’ll check heliboard out! Thanks for the @, really appreciate it.

Now to find a swipe typing library

Dave@lemmy.nz on 09 Jul 2024 11:18 collapse

Even more frustrating was how every keyboard describes themselves as “multilingual” but they just mean you can switch between different languages, not that you can use multiple at once.

EddoWagt@feddit.nl on 09 Jul 2024 11:48 collapse

Yeah it’s a totally different thing. I guess people who make the keyboards only really speak one language. It’s taken so much time to find a keyboard that actually does it. Gboard does it and I think Swiftkey used to as well, but those are not open source obviously.

I still have a bit of configuring to do for Heliboard, but I think I can get it to work for me

n3ur0n@discuss.tchncs.de on 07 Jul 2024 09:07 next collapse

If you don’t need anything except typing, Simple Keyboard might be what you’re looking for.

barcaxavi@lemmy.world on 07 Jul 2024 09:31 next collapse

Gboard runs OK without any permissions, so if you don’t find anything good enough, that still could be your solution. I tried many other options but haven’t found a bilingual swipe keyboard as good as Gboard unfortunately. I just gave it network permission to download dictionaries, switched off all permissions, and it’s running smooth since months now.

bloubz@lemmygrad.ml on 07 Jul 2024 11:14 collapse

Google apps still can communicate with each other on a regular Android, so restricting network access might not be enough to ensure data privacy

maliciousonion@lemmy.ml on 07 Jul 2024 09:50 next collapse

I use AnySoftKeyboard from F-Droid

Missmuffet@lemmy.world on 07 Jul 2024 09:52 next collapse

I’ve been using Florisboard and I like it well enough :>

bitwolf@lemmy.one on 07 Jul 2024 18:32 next collapse

Heliboard is my main. But I’ve been trying Futo Keyboard and its also very nice.

LucidBoi@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 07 Jul 2024 19:09 next collapse

FlorisBoard has been amazing in terms of customiseability.

hyacin@lemmy.ml on 07 Jul 2024 21:41 next collapse

I installed this after seeing this post the other day and am loving it so far … which is amazing considering how many other keyboards I’ve tried and hated, and always ended up going back to GBoard -

lemmy.ml/post/17614064

The only thing I wish it had is emoji search

chevy9294@monero.town on 18 Jul 2024 12:14 collapse

I’m using Florisboard, it has one-handed mode and its very customizable. I haven’t used any other keyboard, because I have no reason to.