EDIT: Thanks, guys! I ended up downloading Heliboard from f-droid :)
I love the fulliness of unexpected keyboard
Unexpected keyboard is just the best!
Which lemmy client is this? It looks very nice
It’s Jerboa with the “Black” Theme selected under look and feel.
trying this one, pretty interesting so far any way to get gifs in?
For the gifs, are you talking about the keyboard or lemmy client?
I like Fossify’s, but I won’t recommend it - it has no predictive text and no symbols on its main keyboard, the first which is a huge deal for almost everyone. Not sure if they’re working on those or if it will never get those features, because if it had those two it would be the perfect keyboard because it’s so great in every other sense.
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I just use futo keyboard
I don’t think it is OS
It is. Source code here, license here
That is a non-commercial license, so it is not open source.
Since when is allowing commercial derivative work essential for it to be called open source?
Since always https://opensource.org/osd
Aye thanks, for the privacy aspect tot be somewhat covered I guess it fits the bill in its current state, but not true open source as the question asked then. Found the issue asking them to change but highly doubt they will https://github.com/futo-org/android-keyboard/issues/17
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Fyi, the futo keyboard isn’t open source. The license heavily restricts against who can modify it and for what purpose. https://gitlab.futo.org/keyboard/latinime/-/blob/master/LICENSE.md?ref_type=heads
it is, you just can’t understand what open-source means, even though it is in its name
you just can’t understand what open-source means
FYI, nearly everyone (including Futo themselves), except for some Futo fans like yourself who haven’t gotten the memo, agrees that this is the definition of “open source” (and Futo’s license obviously does not qualify).
Other comments in this thread suggesting that Futo keyboard is open source have been deleted as offtopic.
no, they delete it because they can’t tolerate the truth and they resort to censorship. Orwell has seen this and wrote a book about it
Whoa, I found the discussion rather insightful 😕
all I hear is yapping, I can read, modify, and redistribute the source, what’s the big deal?
Ah I wasn’t aware, I just assumed that even if it’s from its own repository, it is still on F-droid
Edit: reading the license, seems open source enough but I don’t have a legal background so I’m not the most well versed in that stuff, as long as code it open is the bare minimum for me.
even if it’s from its own repository, it is still on F-droid
There is nothing to stop anyone from running their own f-droid repo and distributing non-free software through it, which is what futo is doing.
seems open source enough
This is the definition. Compare it with Futo’s license; it fails to meet both the Open Source Definition and Free Software Definition in several ways. After insisting they could redefine the term for a while (despite the definition’s wide acceptance) and inspiring some of their very vocal fans to promulgate their dishonest argument on their behalf, Futo themselves finally came around and agreed to stop calling their software open source.
That seems like a open source license to me? The main parts seem to disallow making money from it and commercial use.
sounds like an actually great license. tired of companies using open-source plugins in propertiary applications for nefarious purposes
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That goes against at least one of the fundamental freedoms for FOSS software, but that I mind much. Still, technically but open source.
This license, plus that the app require microphone access, plus all the AI features, make my BS alarm go bzzz.
Microphone and “AI” models are all private local offline source available. They use a whisper model for speech to text, and a small LLM for next word prediction.
Is it vulnerable to enshittification?
Once Luis Rossman dies likely…
Until then, i trust that bro
I use Fcitx5 for its Chinese language support.
I used to use Gboard for Cantonese input. I downloaded fcitx5 reading your comment and tried it for some time. There are some features noticeably missing compared to Gboard.
- top numeric row
- single-hand mode
- simplified and traditional characters selection#
# Found it. It’s in the settings bar at the top of the typing area. Click it open and go deep inside it.
What Gboard and fcitx5 both don’t have for Jyutping input is glide typing. I wish fcitx5 have it because it is really what could make me switch and not look back. Gboard in general has better finger tap detection/correction because duh Google had more data to train on. But I will definitely start using fcitx5 because being open source is sufficient for me to switch.
For languages that isn’t supported by its plugins like Japanese, I have to keep using Gboard though.
Fcitx5 is the best for Chinese. Honestly very impressed that there is a open-source keyboard this good for Chinese. Only thing missing is fat finger error correction (like autocorrect but it works on the preedit text instead of text already output)
Heeliboard, Hands Down
thanks, a lot of people talked about it, I downloaded it yesterday.
Preference for AnySoftKeyboard.
Why is there so many censored posts about keyboard apps?
there is a thread about the moderation of this thread here.
I like HeliBoard. It automatically switches between the languages I write in.
Yeah heliboard is the only one I’ve found that is actually usable on a day to day. Just wish the autocorrect was better, other than that no complaints.
How do you make it switch automatically?
I just start writing in the different language and the suggestions + autocorrect switch for me. All the languages (other than Korean) use the same keyboard layout and for the umlauts I need to hold the aoeu shortly to get the right umlaut, or I just rely on the autocorrect.
Back to heliboard. I found the setting. In the languages selection, it seems it is only a toggle and to get the menu you need to long press. That needs to be fixed and put the multi language option outside.
Thanks, but couldn’t get it to work. These all fuss about futo decided to check it out, and all languages are working fine. The predictions are also better.
How do you set it up to do that? I just discovered multilingual typing, but that does not seem to be quite it.
I installed the dictionaries I need and then followed https://github.com/Helium314/HeliBoard/wiki/FAQ#multilingual-typing-type-in-multiple-languages-without-switching-manually
Okay, thanks. The switching between languages is not perfect yet, but works okay. I regularly get suggestions for another language than I am currently typing.
I don’t know, but Thumb-Key is written to by a core Lemmy developer, dessalines.
what a fantastic way to indicate my turbo nerd status to my friends and family!
Openboard (fdroid)
Thumb-key.
It takes a bit to adapt and create muscle memory but I can’t change it now that I am used to it.
yeah. Takes a bit to get used to but I now have less typos than on regular keyboards. 🙂
After trying couple of keybords (mostly AnySoftKeyboard and TypeWise [proprietary]) I have settled on Unexpected Keyboard due to easy switch of keybords to get to japanese keyboard and tts button.
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I’ve been using heliboard for more than a year without any issues. Only think I don’t like is the lack of emoji search(?)
I’ve been down this rabbit hole and here’s the haul from Wonderland:
Conventional:
- Heliboard - Has glide typing, but the available library is unstable and old. The most polished.
- Florisboard - Currently under heavy development, but what’s there is more than usable and very well done.
- Unexpected Keyboard - I actually love this one, but as a Fold user I need some auto correct. Uses swipe motions on each key for symbols and punctuation.
Unconventional:
- Thumbkey - A 3x3 grid using taps and swipes to type. I flip flop between this and Heliboard atm. Has circular motions to input caps or numbers. MASSIVE amount of layouts, including language, programmer, writer and more. Easy layout switch key on the fly.
- Flickboard - Same setup as Thumbkey. This would be my go to ever since they added a landscape layout that smart switches on inner Fold screen, but there’s no separate key height for it, so you have to deal with non-uniform on one screen which isn’t easy to type on. Also has circular motion for caps. No numeric, but there’s the option of having a small number column.
- 8vim - The only one of it’s kind since 8pen died. I’m learning this one and it’s great, but wonky on inner Fold screen. Its hard to explain, but you use circular motions around on X wheel to input whole words at a time letter by letter. Start center, drag out into a quadrant, rotate to get your letter, go back to center, without lifting go to your next quadrant for the next letter. When you’re done and back on center, let go to insert space, or you can move out into a quadrant then lift to end without a space. Takes a lot of getting used to.
Oh wow, I’ve abandoned Thumbkey on a Fold, but I didn’t know of Flickboard.
Do you also know if any of them support multi language spell checking?
Heliboard has multiple dictionary support. Florisboard is still in development for this feature, from what I know. Unexpected Keyboard has none by design, being made for termux and programming.
The unconventional list also has none by design, maybe because there’s less of a chance to fat thumb the keys.
Heliboard would be your winner there, for now.
Thanks, I’ll try it again
EDIT: It works well
Hey thanks for posting info about various keyboards. I’m typing this on flickboard. I downloaded it after reading your post. The circle to capitalize the center letter is a little wonky for me but otherwise so far so good.
I like trying non-standard keyboards since they might work better and there’s no physical form constraints so why not.
My all time favorite keyboard was minuum, but it wasn’t open source so I stopped using it when I started to care about that stuff.
After watching that vid, I’m sad to see that it’s no longer being developed and that the devs didn’t leave any open source behind. :( That would have been really cool to try out.
Good rule of thumb to capitalize letters with circle is just to make the circle as large as it can go within the keyboard area. It doesn’t have to be centered around the key, just needs to start on the key. For center I usually just circle down from the key as far as I can.
Yeah I got to the point where I could pretty reliaby touch type with it. Irc the apk is available on apk mirror but as you said closed source. It does suck that it wasn’t open sourced after the company went out of business.
Thanks for the capitalization tip. It’s been helping!
It should be noted that Heliboard does not “have glide typing” but rather it supports loading the proprietary Google swype library.
One that’s two years old at that. Its not the best solution, but it’s the only one we have if you absolutely need glide typing.
It hitches up sometimes and I find myself getting the wrong words more than other glide typing solutions from closed source keyboards, but it’s not horrible.
Sorry I wasn’t more clear on this in my original post.
U have nerfed my typing speed by 99% with thumb key. Its fun tho
Lol I know the pain. It takes a few days to get to acceptable typing speed, but you can get pretty fast (some report 56 wpm which is pretty good for a virtual keyboard).
Just make sure you know what you want between Thumbkey or Messagease layouts. I started with Messagease layout and it was all good until I spotted some really nice Thumbkey programmer layouts and switched.
Gonna stick with it for a bit, and check the other one out. Some words are already coming out quicker. Thanks for the tips
