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What is a good keyboard for android?

I've been using SwiftKey for waaaaaaay too long. I shoulda switched when Microsoft bought them out.

But old habits die hard. And I love the skin I use.

Help they know everything I've typed on a phone. That can't be good for anyone.

Edit: Holy fuck everyone, thanks for all of the responses!

I went with Heliboard, and typing this, it looks like I have to change a couple more settings to get it like I had Swiftkey, but I already like it more.

The fact you can basically make your own skin by changing all of the colors of the keyboard is amazing.

Fuck microsoft's ai keyboard.

Heliboard for lyfe!

Edit edit: trying to delete my data from Swiftkey was INSANELY hard. I couldn't do it from my phone, so I had to login with a computer. They think they are slick.... Fuckers....

pineapplelover ,

Ima be honest, I just use Google Keyboard but disable the its networking for the app.

Asudox ,
@Asudox@lemmy.world avatar

FlorisBoard beta is very nice. Mine looks very nice.

Vigilante ,

Yeah been using that for a long time.

N0x0n ,

Also FlorisBoard is back in the game !

Note: Due to various reasons development has been quite stuck in the past year, but things are slowly improving again and new releases/features will follow in the near future, please see the roadmap for details!

florisboard

ninjaturtle ,
@ninjaturtle@lemmy.today avatar

Check out HeliBoard on f-droid.

lemmyreader ,

Maybe you meant Izzy ?
https://android.izzysoft.de/repo/apk/helium314.keyboard HeliBoard does not appear to be in the main F-Droid repository unless I'm overlooking something.

ninjaturtle ,
@ninjaturtle@lemmy.today avatar

You are probably correct. Didn't check the repo.

Salix ,

It is about to be in official F-Droid repo very soon

https://gitlab.com/fdroid/rfp/-/issues/2662

nosnahc ,
@nosnahc@lemmy.world avatar

Heliboard is just perfect

Evil_Shrubbery , (edited )

Yes, this.

Highly customisable, fast, multi language (so you don't have to switch), and you can even load in (a degoogled, but still proprietary) swiping library - so it swipes like gboard, looks however you like, it's fully local, and it's open.

Earlier this month they published 1.0 alpha but do install the 1.2 version from github for easier future updates (new signature): github/Helium314/HeliBoard.

SnokenKeekaGuard ,
@SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I don't understand how to get the swipe library, could you link it by any chance pls.

TurtleTourParty ,

See how to enable glide typing in the FAQ:

https://github.com/Helium314/HeliBoard?tab=readme-ov-file#faq--common-issues

SnokenKeekaGuard ,
@SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Oh thanks so much, all worked out. I'm finally happy with my keyboard after like 2 years

DreadPotato ,
@DreadPotato@sopuli.xyz avatar

How do you get the auto correct / language support to actually work? It's less than useless for me, it hardly ever provides suggestions or corrects typos and doesn't recognise a lot of regular words. Adjusting the aggressiveness/confidence in the settings does absolutely nothing.

Evil_Shrubbery ,

Idk, it works for me perfectly (I assume you downloaded necessary dictionaries).

Maybe it's the learning type and still learning? I only ever added a few words to the dictionary and all of those are bcs I intentionally spell them wrong.

Also iirc you can set it to automatically add words to your dictionary after a certain number of times you typed it (eg if I type twice snailporn the third time should be suggested or considered while gesturing).

DreadPotato ,
@DreadPotato@sopuli.xyz avatar

I have, it's really not very good IMO. It's half decent in English. but it sucks ass in my native language, half the suggestions it's giving are completely wrong or nonsensical in the context of the sentence.

Evil_Shrubbery ,

My native language is pretty niche, and I have since remembered that I did have a few funny suggestions at the beginning, however I now dont really differentiate between Heli & g.
But the same goes for gboard & Swyft, it needs a few weeks at the beginning.

Also info about my use - I never have autocorrect on (only suggestions), mostly use gestures, and dont use the system personal dictatory but the one in Heli folders.

Yesterday I've uninstalled 1.0, installed 1.2, and restored a backup. Works just like before.

LiveLM ,

The Swype library really saved my ass, I was still holding onto Gboard because of it

boyi ,

I tried to switch to heliboard using multiple languages but its predictions is simply out of league compared to SwiftKey. Reluctantly, I switched back.

Nima ,
@Nima@lemmy.world avatar

I just grabbed it from your suggestion. my gods I forgot how nice it is to have a keyboard with autocorrect that works properly.

thank you very much. this is a fantastic little keyboard and I'm excited to finally replace Swiftkey. cause it's really been bad for a while.

thanks again 🙏

Nomad ,

Is has actually usable offline swype. With third party library though.

MadBob ,

I see that's a fork of Openboard, which I have, but I don't really use it because it keeps suggesting American spellings (sometimes alongside British spellings), and my thumbs are too mighty to use a mobile phone keyboard without the suggestions. Would you happen to know if Heliboard fixes this?

N4CHEM ,

I have Heliboard set to English (UK) and it suggests British spellings (highlighting the American ones as typos), so I think you should be good. However, I'm not sure if the spellings come from my phone's system or from the keyboard...

I would nevertheless recommend trying it: it has some very nice improvements over OpenBoard and is under active development, so you could request new features or report bugs and expect them to be taken care of.

MadBob ,

I'm convinced!

nevetsg ,

Hello, I have search F-Droid app and get no results for Heliboard. Any idea what I could be missing?

ninjaturtle ,
@ninjaturtle@lemmy.today avatar

You have to look in the Izzy repo.

https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/helium314.keyboard

nevetsg ,

This worked perfectly, thank you.

padge ,

I found it on Obtanium which you can get from the f-droid store

nevetsg ,

Ha! Inception FOSS stores.

buzz86us ,

I use openboard mod with gesture typing

SanndyTheManndy ,

thumbkey. blazingly fast and secure.

foremanguy92_ ,

I would recommended you HeliBoard (an OpenBoard alternative with some enhancements like multi language typing)
https://github.com/Helium314/HeliBoard

Broken ,

Thanks for the recommendation. I see there's gesture typing support if you load a library. Which one do you use if any?

N4CHEM ,

I followed the recommendation of the developer and installed the file from GApps packages ("swypelibs"). They provide a link in Heliboard's README, scroll down to the FAQ section and look for "How to enable glide typing"

bluespin ,

Thanks to you and everyone else in this thread that recommended HeliBoard. It's excellent

N4CHEM ,

Heliboard https://github.com/Helium314/HeliBoard

Blisterexe ,
@Blisterexe@lemmy.zip avatar

no material you ):

dessalines ,
@dessalines@lemmy.ml avatar

Here's one I made, called Thumb-Key. No internet permissions, made to be private.

Muun ,

I use this after messagease suddenly decided to charge a subscription fee.

It's pretty darn close in functionality. Highly recommend taking the time to learn it.

dessalines ,
@dessalines@lemmy.ml avatar

Thx! Ya the main reason I made it, was because messagease development died, and all my emails to the messagease team (their only contact email) went unanswered for like 2+ years. So it seemed like a good opportunity to do a from-scratch open source rewrite.

Muun ,

I actually forked your code so I could customize the keyboard a little bit. I was impressed that I didn't have any problems building the thing right away. Doesn't always happen for me with open source projects.

One thing that was driving me nuts was how sensitive the swipe gestures on the spacebar are. I guess my thumbs always do a slight swipe when I'm pressing space and it was moving the cursor position on me. I wiped out all of that code. If you're taking suggestions, a way to disable swipe gestures on the spacebar would be a cool add. I'll see if I can get together a PR for it as well and be a part of the solution.

dessalines ,
@dessalines@lemmy.ml avatar

Sure, I'd accept a PR for adding a setting to disable all spacebar swipes.

GoOnASteamTrain ,

Darn it, I popped into this thread to suggest Thumb-Key, and was beaten to it by the maker of the keyboard!

Thank you for making my phone usage much faster and enjoyable (written using Thumb-Key of course!) :)

LiveLM ,

Thank you for making this!

I really need to try making something for Android, looks like fun

Xanis ,

I appreciate that it's made for my thumbs as opposed to other, less keyboard optimal digits.

Churbleyimyam ,

Hey! I tried your keyboard out when I was setting up my new phone - very cool and innovative idea!

dessalines ,
@dessalines@lemmy.ml avatar

Thx!

backhdlp ,
@backhdlp@iusearchlinux.fyi avatar

I use AnySoftKeyboard (fdroid github website). It has quite the amount of customizability. I like that there are arrow buttons to navigate text better.

moon ,

Spent a bit of time customising it when I got it, and it's saved me so much frustration over the past year. Copy pasting, tabbing, having an undo via keyboard, moving character with an arrow. I enjoy typing with a touchscreen now. Would recommend it to anyone wholeheartedly.

mukt ,
@mukt@lemmy.ml avatar

I have been using Hacker's Keyboard since ... forever?

HeavyRaptor ,

I'm also a Swiftkey holdover, trying Heliboard now..

Is there a keyboard that can do haptic feedback while typing and enable multiple languages at the same time. These two features are really missing for me.

N4CHEM , (edited )

Heliboard can do multilingual typing, and I believe there is some kind of haptic feedback... I don't use that function, but it was mentioned in the latest release notes

HeavyRaptor ,

Thanks! I went back and eventually found the settings for them. You can even configure the length of the haptic feedback which is great.

beSyl ,

How does it do multilingual typing? You have to change the input method, right?

N4CHEM ,

Not necessarily: you can choose to have several languages separated as different input methods (you can switch between them very quickly by sliding vertically from the space bar) OR you can go to "Settings / Languages" and select one of your active languages and inside its submenu add languages for multilingual typing. This way when you select that original language as input method it will use and recognise all the languages you added at once. I must say this can be tricky with glide typing, but still works pretty well.

dog_ ,

I use Gboard cause it's the only keyboard that has the preferences that I want. I'm on GrapheneOS, so I just disable the network connection for Gboard.

technomad ,

What preferences are you referring to?

dog_ ,

Autocorrect, not removing my corrections after I hit the backspace key, being able to disable the suggestion boxes, being able to customize it to my liking, and a couple other things that I'm currently forgetting about.

southsamurai ,
@southsamurai@sh.itjust.works avatar

Heliboard seems decent so far.

xyx ,

+1 vor HeliBoard.
I was in the same position and switched about half a year ago. The only thing I missing so far is a dedicated voice input button.

technomad ,

It has that now

slazer2au ,

irregular expressions.

🅆🄷🄾 🅽🅴🅴🅳🆂 𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚌𝚔 𝖜𝖍𝖊𝖓 𝔂𝓸𝓾 🅒🅐🅝 ｔｙｐｅ 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 a͟ ̶h̶̶o̶̶s̶̶t̶̶a̶̶g̶̶e̶👏taker👏

doppydrop ,

Hell👏yes👏thank👏you👏for👏bringing👏this👏into👏my👏life

slazer2au ,

y̷̪͎͙̣̠̪̅͆̕͝ͅọ̷͒̍͟ͅų̸̮͎̞͙̣̥͍̽̌͒̉͋͊̽̆̽̋͘͡͠r̸̡͈͈̬̬̹̭̹̍͗̐͂̑͛̅̄̕̕͘͠ ̷̨̙̩̘̩̰̀͋͜w̸̗̖̺͖̫̐́͋̐̀̈́̋̓̕͠ę̶̡͎͉̪̰̲̼̠̭͓̳̀͐̀ͅl̶̰̺͚̫̦̍́̓̐̅̈́̓̂̑͝͝͝c̵͖̞̀̈́͋̓́̓̌̓̋̕͘͠ò̴̫̰̬̮̗͓̻͚͛́͘͟ṁ̷̳̣͔͖e̶̖̝͎̞̅̓̾̍̉́͌͆͝ ̸̳̜̳̥̠͍̲̠̣̈́̾̍͗̌͂͑̚͝m̸̧̛̳̠̦̩̱̞͎̝̯̲͚̜̬͗̓̄̓́̈́̾̾̈́̊̽ͅa̸̧̨͖̼̦͉̲͛̾́͋̌͑͌̽̚͝t̴̝̦̘̞͇͖̪͔̙̠̲͈̀̒̒̋̇̎̔̄̂̇́ę̸̧̼̮̭͉̼͔̮̥̗͇̟̥̤͛̐̉̾͗̓̆̇͛̀̚͘͟

CosmicApe ,
@CosmicApe@kbin.social avatar

Ȳ̷̡̀͊͌̒o̶̢̝͂u̷̮̦̙̫̭̎'̵̪̳͔͙̫͖̓̒̒̑̊̃̉r̵̜͎͂̉̋̔̍͂͘͝ë̸̳̭̬̖́̌̆̐̅̚*̸̫̙͉͒̊̾͒̂͂̈́͝

slazer2au ,

f̑̇̈ȗ̇̈c̑̇̈k̑̇̈

xep ,

Is there a privacy conscious keyboard that offers a floating mode like Swiftkey does? I'd love to switch.

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