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OpenBoard – FOSS Keyboard for Android which respects your privacy

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Re: OpenBoard – FOSS Keyboard for Android which respects your privacy

#141

Post by Symbiote »

dastx wrote: post #56
MayeulC wrote: post #12

I use AnysoftKeyboard (on F-Droid) [1]. I's pretty good, but has issues with the French apostrophe, that's often used to combine words. It also has multiple keyboard layouts, of which "terminal" compares favorably to hacker's keyboard. I like that it is configurable, and has a lot of text editing tools when swiping space up. I admit I lost some typing speed when I switched from the alternatives, but I'm happier with…

AnySoftKeyboard on the surface seems cool, however, they've overloaded it with unnecessary characters. When I tried it, I had English selected and yet somehow it has characters that are _never_ used in English. That's not necessarily an issue, but when non-English characters are easier to type than English characters, it decreases my typing speed significantly. I raised an issue about it and was quickly dismissed. I'…

Many people typing in English find it useful to be able to type names, places etc which require foreign characters.

"Let's meet at Nørreport, Lærke says she will be late."

Re: OpenBoard – FOSS Keyboard for Android which respects your privacy

#142

Post by yorwba »

opan wrote: post #139
Maha-pudma wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I do that it does open in fdriid but to the "Armenian for AnysoftKeyboard". Edit: thought I would install it and it turns out its English. Using to type this.

Yeah, the app name got screwed up for whatever reason.

This appears to be a known issue: https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/-/issues/2014

Re: OpenBoard – FOSS Keyboard for Android which respects your privacy

#143

Post by cutemonster »

cutemonster wrote: post #135
the_pwner224 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On lineageos there's an option somewhere in the system settings to make the volume buttons move the cursor when the keyboard is open.

Add Comment the_pwner224 3 hours ago | parent | on: OpenBoard – FOSS Keyboard for Android which respec... On lineageos there's an option somewhere in the system settings to make the volume buttons move t andhe cursor when the keyboard is open.

Oops I accidentally submitted that, when trying out the keyboard features (i copied some random text and started soft kbd space sweeping to move the cursor. Didn't notice i apparently submitted the text too)

Re: OpenBoard – FOSS Keyboard for Android which respects your privacy

#144

Post by SergeAx »

I love FOSS and even trying to contribute a bit here and there. I instantly decided to give this keyboard a try and man, I didn't realize how I used to swype! Not having a swype is a show-stopper for me.

Am I understand it right that swyping is a patented tech[0] and we will not see it in FOSS for at least 6 more years?

[0] http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=H...

Re: OpenBoard – FOSS Keyboard for Android which respects your privacy

#145

Post by kevincox »

_trampeltier wrote: post #9
ThePhysicist wrote: post #2

Great project. It's funny that we are at a point where even keyboard apps are spying on your personal and private data. Crazy.

Yes, a keyboard app just should not allowed to have a network connection, but yeah, a thing to dream in 2021.

I know I "shouldn't" but I use Google Keyboard. It is really compelling and has legitimate use cases for a network connection with the built in GIF search.

Re: OpenBoard – FOSS Keyboard for Android which respects your privacy

#146

Post by lights0123 »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #133
lights0123 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All in production iPhones don't have force touch.

I don't have any device without it on hand, but since force touch is basically a glorified longtap, I guess some form of longtap will do the trick.

Yes, they have "haptic touch", which means long press. Force touch specifically requires you to apply more pressure than a normal touch.

Re: OpenBoard – FOSS Keyboard for Android which respects your privacy

#147

Post by lucb1e »

Bellamy wrote: post #40
lucb1e wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "default" keyboard differs from device to device. Most devices have a closed source keyboard either from Google (gboard) or from Microsoft (swiftkey). If I remember correctly, both send subsets of what you type to the mothership and pinky swear to only use it for product improvement and guard your data with their lives.

So Xiaomi, Google, Samsung etc. knows everything we write and erase? I getting really paranoid...

I wouldn't put it that strongly.

Re: OpenBoard – FOSS Keyboard for Android which respects your privacy

#148

Post by lucb1e »

solarkraft wrote: post #111
lucb1e wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No gesture typing in 2011, ahem, 2021 is not even worth considering to me. I'm using a closed source keyboard because it just works better than all the open stuff (at least when I last tried various keyboard in ~2018), but have it firewalled off completely in AfWall+. That means no updates, though it learns new words like COVID-19 well enough from me, but also no data leaking (I'd happily contribute typing stats if i…

Which one do you use?

Swiftkey is what I found to work the best. It puts symbols on keys (e.g. long press m to make /), can make symbols like × by long-pressing *, can have a number row above the keyboard, and the predictions are some of the best as far as I've been able to tell.

I also don't mistrust Microsoft that much, since they don't have a data-oriented profit model, so even if the firewall is slow to boot up and lets it upload a backlog, even then it should be okayish.

I made the mistake of updating it once, though, and got an uglier design and now need to press two buttons to get into incognito mode rather than just one. Lesson learned: never change a nice system if it's fully firewalled and isolated... or at least have a planned retreat.

Re: OpenBoard – FOSS Keyboard for Android which respects your privacy

#149

Post by wayneftw »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #130
wayneftw wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://imgur.com/agqXWWJ That's me pasting your comment into a reply box and then using my iPhone 8 to move the cursor around. Once I start moving the cursor all I'm doing is moving it, nothing else. You can see that it starts selecting text randomly twice. It actually took me longer to trigger it this time than usual. I think it happens when I moved to the top of the text and then make a downward motion. It's reall…

Likely you have a defective unit, which somehow breaks the force touch input.

No, I've been through 3 iPhones now and they all did it.

Re: OpenBoard – FOSS Keyboard for Android which respects your privacy

#150

Post by StavrosK »

Semaphor wrote: post #76
StavrosK wrote: post #3

I would love it if we could get something like SwiftKey, but actively developed. Its predictions are magic, but lately it has been getting more and more buggy, suggesting words that don't exist, changing already-correct words to nonsense, and refusing to learn.

Try deleting cache and data (backup your personal dictionary first). As with everything smart that learns (obviously YMMV, but that is my experience) it gets worse over time. Back when I used SwiftKey I deleted everything once a month to have a decent experience.

I do that semi-often, it does get better for a bit and then trash again.
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