this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2023
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Privacy

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I've been using SwiftKey for over a decade now, and I didn't really realize how potentially horrible it is for privacy. What are some good alternatives you guys can suggest, ideally open source?

My ideal keyboard includes swipe to type and a notepad (to paste certain emoticons like shrug emoji and such).

Thank you!

Edit, for any future lemmings/internet people who want the definitive answer (so far, as of October '23), OpenBoard works great.

Download the latest release apk from here

And if you want swipe typing as well,

Download the "libjni_latinimegoogle.so" file onto your phone from here

Then when you open OpenBoard, go to Advanced and select "Load gesture typing library". When it asks you to select a file, select the "libjni" file and swiping should work just fine.

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[–] bledley 35 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Unfortunately Gboard is still the best around. Block it's internet access.

[–] 84615_on_resu 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think that Gboard would still find a way to connect to the mothership.

[–] bledley 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes probably. It's a compromise and not ideal. I revoke internet access and on Graphene OS not tied to a Google account. We all find our own peace with this kind of thing. Florisboard looked very promising but the swipe text wasn't implemented last I checked.

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

Florisboard appears to have been abandoned

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I'd love to love Florisboard, but it doesn't make it easy. Swiping feels great, but it's dearly missing autocorrect/suggestions and the word recognition is so bad that typing is faster at least 80% of the time, which defeats the purpose.
I hope it gets better in the future.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So one of the suggestions was to use Invizible Pro to block it's access. Do you use the same method?

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (15 children)

This fork is actively developed, supports gestures amd many other features. Try it!

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[–] Downcount 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I tried openboard but am missing swipe.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (3 children)

(Don't be a goof like me and install the Neo Store/Fdroid version and spend 15 minutes wondering how to enable swiping, btw. The version on Github which has swipe is from September 2022, a month after the Fdroid/Neo Store release: https://github.com/erkserkserks/openboard/releases/tag/v1.4.5-gesture-typing)

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Sweet! This is more comfortable to use coming from Gboard to ASK. I got used to the issues with ASK but def prefer AOSP keyboards more.

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[–] eruchitanda 18 points 1 year ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Ive been using this keyboard for around a year now, and compared to Swiftkey and gboard, I absolutely hate anysoftkeyboard with a passion. However, its the best FOSS alternative I've come across.

Also, my dogs name is Bowie, so whenever I type his name, the keyboard just starts spitting out David Bowie lyrics across the bottom of the keyboard, so thats kinda cool I guess.

[–] eruchitanda 5 points 1 year ago

I forgot to mention, ASK also has a very wide selection of languages.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

I tried ASK and wasn't a fan. Unless I'm missing customization options, it lacked the ability to change long press times, there's an obnoxious empty space above the keyboard, and it was quite poor at auto correcting words that were supposed to have apostrophes. You'll have to change your bottom row to get the space bar a similar size to Swiftkey (I missed it a fair bit before doing this), and it doesn't have the hold space bar to move cursor either.

I get that using a different keyboard is going to be an adjustment, being a convert to Colemak, but this one seems just a bit too rough around the edges for me.

E: found the long press adjustment, but now can't find how to add long press symbols to the keys...maybe I'm just too dumb for this keyboard

E2: Actually, after more messing with it, I'm going to give it another go. Still missing the long press symbols, autocorrect apostrophes, and auto space placement after adding commas and periods though. We'll see how long I can put up with that.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I was going to recommend AnySoftKeyboard but someone recommended OpenBoard fork with swipe type and that's by far the best open source keyboard app I've used now... Especially coming from gboard

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Agreed, it's a fantastic alternative.

[–] Redinx 2 points 1 year ago

Thanks, trying it now and it's great so far. Also trying to get away from Swiftkey.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm in kind of the same boat as you op, I've been using Swiftkey for 5+ years but have been wanting an altnernative that isn't associated with the big tech companies for a while. After seeing this post earlier today I decided to give AnySoftKeyboard a shot.

I got it all configured the way I wanted but now I'm actually using it I don't think it's gonna work for me tbh. I'll give it a few days before making a decision though. I wish there more options out there.

On the plus side, I came across this and it made my day:

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Hahah, that's hilarious! I tried ASK as well but gave up after 10-15 minutes of using it.

One of the comments has a link to a fork of OpenBoard that includes swipe (version 1.4.5 or something), and it works really well. The auto correct isn't as great as Swiftkey (I'm hoping it gets better with time), but the swiping is absolutely solid.

Been using this for about a day now and I don't see myself going back to Swiftkey. Typed this comment with it, hahah.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

i like florisboard: language switching, clipvoard actions, undo/redo, customization, ...

[–] thecam 2 points 1 year ago

FlorisBoard is feature rich.

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

Floriaboard deserves a shoutout. As a multilingual, I value the mixing languages without switching them. Takes some time to adjusr and no autocorrect for now, but it's getting there.

[–] angrymouse 2 points 1 year ago

Dude, thanks to recommend this, as a multilingual I'm tired of the default keyboard of E/os that doesn't have this feature.

[–] diaonaastick 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'll check this out, but on their Git they haven't updated since September 2022 :/

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

So I do appreciate that they have swipe to type, but it doesn't have a word suggestion feature / autocorrect.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (15 children)

I've used MessagEase for many years now and I absolutely love it. It's a very different kind of keyboard and so takes a while to get used to but once you've learned to use it properly you can type a lot faster with it on a touch screen with limited real estate.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Look at the AnySoft keyboard, available from F-Droid.

It has emojis like the one you mentioned inbuilt.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

GBoard is the one Google app I put in my owner profile. I've tried every recommendation I've seen and nothing else comes close to how good Gboard is.

[–] Clubbing4198 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)
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[–] http417 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Different apporach: use the keyboard you like and block its internet access using invizible pro/netguard/afwall.

I had the same problem, after using openboard for a long time, and now I'm doing this, using gboard and blocking it with invizible pro.

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

OK, this doesn't have swipe to type or a notepad, but I'm trying out Thumb-Key. It's a very different sort of keyboard, almost akin to the old-fashioned way of texting with just the number keys on a phone, just updated for a smartphone screen. The problem is that it takes practice/memorization to learn, because it's a whole new layout. It's open source and very privacy conscious (there's no predictive text or autocorrect).

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