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submitted 2 months ago by br3d@lemmy.world to c/android@lemdro.id

Gboard is getting visibly worse almost on a daily basis, especially autocorrecting perfectly legitimate words, presumably based on dubious analysis of other people's writing. So what's worth trying? The ability to swipe type is a big plus

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[-] lemmyng@lemmy.ca 46 points 2 months ago

HeliBoard. However for swipe typing it'll take some practice to get used to, it's more sensitive to swipe accuracy and you may need to reset your muscle memory.

[-] Empricorn@feddit.nl 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

How do you actually enable swipe typing? I have HeliBoard installed, looked through all the options, but it just doesn't. Pixel 8.

EDIT: It looks like you have to enable a closed-source swipe-typing library in Advanced settings at the bottom: "Load gesture typing library"

[-] greatwhitebuffalo41@slrpnk.net 8 points 2 months ago

I see you already figured it out but for anyone who hasn't, you download a swipe library for heliboard Here by picking raw and then uploading it to heliboard in advanced settings>load gesture typing library.

[-] Eldritch@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

I need to figure that out one of these days. I forgot to switch back to gboard if I really want to do that. I wish it was as simple as just enabling. But to go look up the procedure and what I need to download.

[-] greatwhitebuffalo41@slrpnk.net 3 points 2 months ago

I'm not sure if you figured it out but for anyone who hasn't, you download a swipe library for heliboard Here by picking raw and then uploading it to heliboard in advanced settings>load gesture typing library.

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[-] Stillwater@sh.itjust.works 28 points 2 months ago

Heliboard (with closed source swipe gesture library)

[-] akilou@sh.itjust.works 23 points 2 months ago

I've been putting up with Futo keyboard for privacy reasons even though it's not better than Swiftkey which has had the best predictions by far and had served well for many years

[-] sasquash@sopuli.xyz 5 points 2 months ago

I am looking for a privacy friendly SwiftKey alternative, so I will give it a try. Seems like there is sadly not much alternative.

[-] lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

If you go with FUTO keyboard, do these as soon as you download it:

  1. Turn on the machine learning feature for swipe typing (entirely local - nothing about the keyboard phones home)
  2. Allow curse words
  3. Make autocorrect your bitch, and I mean really force it

If you do these things, it will - eventually - figure out your typing habits. But it's worth it. I've been using it for a month or so and, outside of some odd quirks, it's working pretty well. Even has a clipboard manager and a "paste" button (for fat-fingerers like me), among other neat tools.

Oh, and don't forget to drop it into Obtainium so it can be updated, as it's not offered through any app store.

[-] Acamon@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Can you remember where to allow curse words? I've looked through the settings and tried web searches for curse and swear words but can't seem to find it.

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[-] SCmSTR 2 points 2 months ago

I just got futo from Google play store.

[-] lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I would delete that and get it either from F-Droid (I just learned about the F-Droid listing last night), or grab the APK from FUTO directly.

Try to stay away from the Play store when it comes to privacy-related stuff like this.

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[-] akilou@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 months ago

There are plenty of alternatives, they're just all terrible

[-] limerod@reddthat.com 2 points 2 months ago

You can help improve and contribute your swipe typing data by swiping some sentences on their website: https://swipe.futo.org/

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[-] shaggyb@lemmy.world 20 points 2 months ago

Been using FUTO FOR A CHILW ANF I DONT UAVE ANY COMPLAINTA REALLY

[-] sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al 16 points 2 months ago

I said a while back on Mastodon that people don't realise just how bad Gboard is. I don't understand how a company with so many resources sunk into machine learning can fuck up something as bread and butter as a keyboard.

I'm still gutted that Minuum Keyboard never got open sourced. It's the best keyboard I ever used.

[-] Ulrich@feddit.org 13 points 2 months ago

There's no comparison to GBoard. I've tried them all. GBoard is good at everything but specifically it is by far and away the best at text prediction and autocorrect.

Next best is FUTO keyboard.

[-] clmbmb@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 months ago

Gboard never reached the level at which Swiftkey was at dual-language typing, at least for me. I'm Romanian native speaker and also use a lot of English. With Swiftkey I had almost no problems. With gboard I had to switch languages to make them work.

I'm surprised at how good Heliboard became lately at exactly this scenario. I have Romanian-English set and it works great.

[-] Ulrich@feddit.org 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I only speak 1 language so I'll defer to your expertise in that regard.

[-] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 4 points 2 months ago

I find GBoard autoincorrect to be as bad as any other. I stopped using it because of that, and I've been on Android since 2009

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[-] theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

FlorisBoard is open source and supports swipe

Thumb-key is also an interesting concept but very different with a higher learning curve

[-] JetpackJackson@feddit.org 5 points 2 months ago

I thought they got rid of swipe for now because they were recreating it?

[-] theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

swipe has always worked for me with florisboard

EDIT: kinda funny that I'm downvoted when I literally typed this comment using swipe functionality on florisboard lol

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[-] p_kanarinac@retrolemmy.com 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I tried it recently - no swiping. Maybe it's the language? Although it does say in the app it's been disabled.

[-] theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

swipe has always worked for me with florisboard

EDIT: kinda funny that I'm downvoted when I literally typed this comment using swipe functionality on florisboard lol

[-] lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Another vote for FUTO keyboard.

Except, the swipe feature really likes to autocorrect to the most outlandish words that have never entered into my vocabulary at any point in my nearly 40 years on this godforsaken planet.

[-] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)
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[-] airgapped@piefed.social 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I tried many different keyboards but honestly nothing matched up to SwiftKey, now sadly owned by Microsoft, so I locked its internet access using RethinkDNS (or NetGuard)

[-] oranki@sopuli.xyz 7 points 2 months ago

FlorisBoard with the Material theme.

Tried many, but FlorisBoard's bugs bug me the least, not that there are many. The one feature I wanted was password manager autofill bar, FlorisBoard worked the best at the time and has been solid since. Material theme is nice too.

Screenshot

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[-] MBech@feddit.dk 7 points 2 months ago

I've been using Microsoft Swiftkey for years. Haven't had any issues with it.

[-] selokichtli@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 months ago

I just wanted to say that, while Heliboard is a hell of a keyboard, I can't understand why nobody makes something close to keymonk keyboard. I never used a virtual keyboard that could get even close to that.

[-] ___ 5 points 2 months ago

I'm using AnySoftKeyboard, which is open source and also has swipe controls

[-] emilmuzz@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

I've been a fan of Simple Keyboard for quite a while now. https://github.com/rkkr/simple-keyboard

[-] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

When possible, I use Swype. I have the apk, and it works on most things.

When that's not possible, florisboard or heliboard. Both can do swipe typing, though neither is as good at it as swype.

[-] Crashumbc@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Wow I didn't know Swype was still around I used that WAY back in the day. Like android 4-5...

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[-] PlexSheep@infosec.pub 2 points 2 months ago

No problem at all with Gboard for me. In fact, it's the only one that can consistently do both German and Japanese for me.

[-] AMillionMonkeys@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

I'm a swipe typer and I'm sticking with open-board-gesture-typing-v1.4.5.apk, which is some kind of fork of gboard before it went totally off the rails. The only complaint I have about it is that it decided to stop capitalizing "I" for some reason and I haven't been able to fix it, so I have to hit the suggestion each time.

[-] nasi_goreng@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 months ago

OpenBoard is discontinued, the last update is from 2022.

Heliboard is continuation fork of OpenBoard, with more updates.

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[-] Sedathems@mander.xyz 2 points 2 months ago
[-] jacktherippah@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Tbh nothing comes even close to Gboard for me. The layout, the autocorrect, the simplicity, the swipe typing. Everything is perfect.

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this post was submitted on 18 May 2025
77 points (100.0% liked)

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