this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2024
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Privacy
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Check out HeliBoard on f-droid.
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.
You are probably correct. Didn't check the repo.
It is about to be in official F-Droid repo very soon
https://gitlab.com/fdroid/rfp/-/issues/2662
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.
I don't understand how to get the swipe library, could you link it by any chance pls.
See how to enable glide typing in the FAQ:
https://github.com/Helium314/HeliBoard?tab=readme-ov-file#faq--common-issues
Oh thanks so much, all worked out. I'm finally happy with my keyboard after like 2 years
The Swype library really saved my ass, I was still holding onto Gboard because of it
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.
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).
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.
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.
Heliboard is just perfect
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 🙏
I tried to switch to heliboard using multiple languages but its predictions is simply out of league compared to SwiftKey. Reluctantly, I switched back.
Is has actually usable offline swype. With third party library though.
Hello, I have search F-Droid app and get no results for Heliboard. Any idea what I could be missing?
You have to look in the Izzy repo.
https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/helium314.keyboard
This worked perfectly, thank you.
I found it on Obtanium which you can get from the f-droid store
Ha! Inception FOSS stores.
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?
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.
I'm convinced!