Hello, could someone recommended a keyboard for android that is a bit smart in predictive typing? I used to like swiftkeybefore it was bought by microsoft. Not that swiftkey itself was much better but I was not so privy conscious at that time.
I recall swiftkey would require access to your texts and emails to train itself to your predictions.
Is there some similar foss keyboard where all the data then remains local?
I know swiftkey has an incognito mode, but then it stops learning from your typing.
I use a openboard + native library for flow typing. I was long time gboard user but open board is now best for me. https://github.com/Helium314/openboard
Futo, I didn’t find on fdroid or github, where can I looking for it? Thanx
You need to add the repository to fdroid
Holy crap, I didn’t know about this fork before now. I kinda thought that OpenBoard was sorta… abandoned at this point, but seeing the improvements from this fork just made me go and try it again. Normally I just use GBoard with it’s connections disabled (CalyxOS, so that is possible to do in a secure way), but trying this out now to see if I can dump Gboard entirely.
Oh neat, I had no idea someone was upgrading Openboard. I thought it was abandoned.
Last update was 3.Nov.2023 but use OpenBoard debug from Helium 314 from github and use Optanium for upgrade on android. https://github.com/ImranR98/Obtainium
Not sure I trust a random repo here. I dont have the skill to look through the code. In this regard I prefer - after all - gboard. The changes me login credentials get stolen by google are smaller than the chanches I am duped into installing a random keyboard from github. Just based on my threat model and my skillz.
The developer has hit a bit of a roadblock reworking a back-end system and is requesting help, but it has a great feature set already and is super customisable.
I haven’t tried it yet and indeed I just read his post from 3 weeks ago on how to get back on better tracks. I will give it a try but I couldn’t see from its description that it would go beyond its focus on privacy, at least for the moment
Currently florisboard doesn’t have prediction nor autocorrect prediction.
Due to complications in the development of that feature (either too heavy to run or not smart enough for prediction…) and the development of the app got stuck, until maybe recently where it seems to get some dev attraction on some topics.
Tho the prediction is still stuck. So you won’t have yet prediction or smart things in this keyboard.
Well what else do you need tho, it has glide typing, incognito move and auto correct is in development although would take a while. It’s not perfect but it’s already very much a fully decked out keyboard or it will be once suggestions are added.
Well my question was specifically about smart prediction (beyond autocorrect). I have found scores of privacy friendly keyboards. The one I have been using for a year is from simplemobiletools (they have a full suite of apps and I use most of them ie contacts, gallery, notes…) but I miss the prediction feature. As you say even autocorrect is not yet supported in florisboard…but that wouldn’t be enough for me. Personalised dictionary based on typing would be a start, but swiftkey goes beyond, it proposes the next words before you type them
I just had the time with it, honestly. So many things are broken, like spelling and dictionary integration. I know the dev is reworking some things, but even the last release doesn’t work very well. Respects privacy, sure. Works well, naw.
Just installed last week, and the dictionary integration with two different languages works fine for me. Autocorrect is not yet supported, if I remember correctly.
On GrapheneOS ironically you can just use whatever keyboard and disable network permissions. Android is great
Isnt that a root-only app?
Because if it uses the internal VPN feature, EVERY system app can bypass it, and the Captive Portal app and others certainly do.
Only GrapheneOS fixes that afaik, providing their own Servers for captive portal, connectivity check, SUPL proxy server (strips off data and Google still has to manage because monopoly)
Or you could just use software that is actually free/libre. Graphene os misses the point
Yes of course, but for example people that dont know the language yet and need suggestions. What do you mean by that?
The problem with graphene is that is shamelessly promotes proprietary software. They have build tools to try to make it safe to run non-free programs (proprietary software) but that entirely misses the point.
When you run non-free software you do not control the program, it controls you. There is no way to know what it really is doing and you can’t make changes to it or even see what it is doing.
What point are you claiming Graphene misses? FOSS apps on a system where Google has root access is what misses the point.
True but ROMs like lineage os are much better. They still ship a ton on proprietary software but at least there’s none in user space.
florisboard not perfect, but a good choice.
I use AnySoftKeyboard
I also use AnySoftKeyboard (installed from F-Droid, BTW) but IMO it kinda sucks. In particular, it often tries to autocorrect things to capitalized proper nouns, which is almost always exactly the wrong thing to do.
Frankly, I’m reading this thread in hopes of finding something else to replace it.
I use AnySoft as well–it has a predictive word function that seems to work just as well as GBoard’s (albeit I haven’t used GBoard since 2017)
The interface is different (e.g. swype left on the entire keyboard for numbers), but give yourself a week or two to adjust–most things can also be fine-tuned from the settings app
