this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2023
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Every year or so I try one or more privacy focused keyboards. I always end up right back on SwiftKey after a couple of weeks because most of the keyboards I try have the same problem: the predictions suck.

Ok, I get that surveillance is good for predictions. Put another way, predictions are tough without collecting everything everyone types. Is there a best-of-both-worlds keyboard out there? I'd be patient enough to give it some time to learn how I type and get better.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Closest I got was Florisboard because of the customization options

The main things I'm looking for (in order) are

  • predictions
  • better support for emojis and gifs
  • built in translations

Google Keyboard works really nicely and it's hard to give up on some of that

[–] akilou 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Can you link me? Searching it in the Play Store turns up some weird results.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] akilou 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

This sucks. What kind of suggestions are these?

[–] Render 11 points 11 months ago

The dev is implementing his own word suggestion engine. It will take time before it's properly implemented.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

ok yep that's pretty terrible

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Suggestions aren't a thing in Florisboard yet. Still a WIP.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

If you need word suggestions use OpenBoard. If you dont, Florisboard is king.

I always turned off these "you cant type and I know it better anyways" suggestions. Also bilingual + colloquial is not great

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

confused mechanical keyboard noises

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

yes, OP should have specified for Android.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

I like AnySoftKeyboard but it also doesn't have great predictions. They're very customizable though, so maybe you can get something out of it?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I assume you must've tried openboard. What issues did you have with it? The predictions have been more than satisfactory in my experience.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Doesn't seem to have swipe typing, which is important for me. Otherwise it's great.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

There's a fork that supports it, though it looks like it has become inactive, if you care about that https://github.com/erkserkserks/openboard

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

ahh, yeah swipe typing is really tough to inplement well without data collection. i used to use it a lot back before i completely degoogled and id be lying if i said i didnt miss it. i honestly just couldn't find any foss keyboards at all that had swipe typing!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I have OpenBoard too and the predictions suck for me. What do you do that makes it not suck for you?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I use openboard and it does exactly what I want it to do: it displays characters I can type out myself. I don't use swipe typing, predictions or autocorrect as those never work well enough, usually exclusively giving shit suggestions or corrections. I also use three languages daily, so I'd have to constantly switch the keyboard language, if I had autocorrect/predictions/swipe turned on.

I do understand that my use case is not the norm, but I still wanted to give my two cents.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Ah, okay, yeah if you don't use it I don't see it acting up on you. Lol.

What do you do that requires 3 languages? I'm genuinely curious.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I am bilingual (non-english languages) and use those languages with friends and family. I also use English daily on social media etc.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Wow, that's amazing!

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[–] akilou 1 points 11 months ago

I just installed it. I'll give it a shot. Seems like something I probably tried years ago and decided I didn't like it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Not sure how it hasn't been said yet, but I really like Helium314's OpenBoard fork. Can't recommend enough.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

I end up back on SwiftKey because ios stock keyboard doesn't have an option for a persistent number row. That's literally all I want.

Open to suggestions. Would LOVE to not have to have a fucking bing button and be letting Microsoft creep my shit.

[–] akilou 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Dude I'm surprised that iOS even lets you pick a different keyboard than the default

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

They actually didn't for many years.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It annoys me that I can't long press for punctuation on iPhone SwiftKey, like I could with Android. Also, no comma button.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

You can long press the period beside the enter button for some punctuation, though the swipe through that pop up after the long press is a little janky.

You can also long press letter keys for variations on that letter.

I'm typing this on an iPhone and I just tested both those things to make sure I wasn't lying to you lol. What feature is missing? Its been a few years since I used android regularly so I seem to have forgotten.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Android had a dedicated comma button... I think where the mic button is by the space bar. And on Android you could press and hold letters for punctuation, not just accented characters.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Every years or so I try out a bunch of alternate keyboards. Then I go back to using Gboard. {sigh}

I've been using swipe typing for years and I just can't get by without it. None of the privacy oriented keyboards do it well enough to really be usable yet.

[–] akilou 2 points 11 months ago

Almost exactly my situation, expect predictions over swiping and Swiftkey over gboard.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Used to use Openboard but honestly swipe typing is actually good. So I went with Gboard with internet access turned off.

[–] jws_shadotak 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

OpenBoard supports swipe typing and uses a Google library to enable it, so it's pretty much exactly the same as Gboard.

https://github.com/openboard-team/openboard/issues/3

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Direct link:

https://github.com/erkserkserks/openboard/releases/tag/v1.4.4-gesture-typing

I just started using it. It's great!

Tyvm for the heads up :D

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

AOSP keyboard also supports swipe typing when the right library is in place, but I don't think you can get it without flashing a new ROM or via root access.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I'm starting to like Thumb Key. It may have the hardest learning curve I've ever seen, but it's highly configurable, the developer is super active, and it has a ton of nicely implemented features. I feel as if it'll be like vim: hard to get up to speed on, but once the muscle memory takes hold, I'll be extremely productive with it.

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