this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2024

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MessagEase going subscription based (lemmy.world)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

16 comments fedilink hide all child comments

MessagEase subscription popup

This popped up today on my phone when casually tapped on a text field. As a long ass time MessagEase user this makes me sad. Even though it has its issues, it's also been pretty much unbeatable when you need to type text on Android without looking using only one thumb. Looks like MessagEase Pro subscription fee is 1,09€/month. Not that much but no thanks. Enshittification spreads. As a FLOSS enthusiast I've always dreaded this sort of thing when using "free" proprietary products.

Anyhow, do I have to go back to Gboard or are there any free/oss alternatives around to replace MessagEase with?

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Actually I just found out about thumb-key that seems to fit the bill perfectly. In theory at least.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Made by one of the people who made Lemmy btw ;)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Definitely not a con! Now testing thumb-key and it seems quite promising. Just need to get a Finnish layout (or umlauts) going...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Ok, I think this has some way to go still. Compared to MessagEase quite a bit of features are missing (the combine button which gives instant access to a whole lot of special characters, many settings, also do I have to press # to access numbers, etc). That said, I'll keep this installed and hopefully contribute to its development if I can.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

happy to help! maybe we should set up a Lemmy Community if none exists already

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

So it's the same thing but with a different layout? Can you set it up to use the same layout? I'm already very deeply used to it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

It has the MessagEase layout supported as well.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

i somehownever learned about these keyboards, and losing what speed i did have to relearn is kind of a pain.

BUT I AM TRYING

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Give it time. You get used to it. Eventually, you will probably type more accurately than you did before. A qwerty or any full keyboard like that does not belong on a small screen. :-)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You can try Florisboard or Openboard

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Thanks, but these seem they're adhering to Gboard experience rather than MessagEase.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

AnySoftKeyboard is a great FOSS one!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The downloads list suddenly won't load anymore. I was going to get the last version before they added the notice to get pro.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Yeah... It could've been one solution because in practice the app was pretty much unmaintained anyway.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Honestly I don't know how you can suddenly live without it. I've been using it for years so I'm hooked for whatever price they give... I also think they are patented so you can't copy them legally.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Well, quite easily because the amount of irritation that this move caused greatly exceeded the benefits of the product. Even if typing on mobile is now somewhat clunkier and more taxing mentally whether using thumb-key or Gboard.