this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2024

39 points (97.6% liked)

Android

27977 readers

494 users here now

DROID DOES

Welcome to the droidymcdroidface-iest, Lemmyest (Lemmiest), test, bestest, phoniest, pluckiest, snarkiest, and spiciest Android community on Lemmy (Do not respond)! Here you can participate in amazing discussions and events relating to all things Android.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules

1. All posts must be relevant to Android devices/operating system.

2. Posts cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

3. No spam, self promotion, or upvote farming. Sources engaging in these behavior will be added to the Blacklist.

4. Non-whitelisted bots will be banned.

5. Engage respectfully: Harassment, flamebaiting, bad faith engagement, or agenda posting will result in your posts being removed. Excessive violations will result in temporary or permanent ban, depending on severity.

6. Memes are not allowed to be posts, but are allowed in the comments.

7. Posts from clickbait sources are heavily discouraged. Please de-clickbait titles if it needs to be submitted.

8. Submission statements of any length composed of your own thoughts inside the post text field are mandatory for any microblog posts, and are optional but recommended for article/image/video posts.

Community Resources:

We are Android girls*,

In our Lemmy.world.

The back is plastic,

It's fantastic.

*Well, not just girls: people of all gender identities are welcomed here.

Our Partner Communities:

[email protected]

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

MessagEase going subscription based (self.android)

submitted 9 months ago by debil to c/android

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?

top 16 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] debil 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 ;)

[–] debil 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...

[–] debil 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.

[–] lapingvino 2 points 9 months ago

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

[–] ShaharHarshuv 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.

[–] debil 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

[–] debil 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.

[–] debil 2 points 9 months ago

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

[–] ShaharHarshuv 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.

[–] debil 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.