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submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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[-] [email protected] 48 points 1 month 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.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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"

[-] [email protected] 9 points 1 month 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.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month 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.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 month 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.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

No but thank you. It's just always been one of those things that only occurs to me for some reason when I couldn't dive into it. "I'm busy, it would be nice to swipe. I should look into that later". Later i've got plenty of time and don't mind typing regular. It's like a vicious cycle lol

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

I did that for a long time. I just had to go back in my comments to find the link to reply to you because I forgot how I did it lmao

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Yes i should probably document it just in case as well.

[-] [email protected] 31 points 1 month ago

Heliboard (with closed source swipe gesture library)

[-] [email protected] 23 points 1 month 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

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 month 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.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month 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.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Settings -> Text prediction -> Blacklisted Suggestions -> Block offensive words (turn it off)

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[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

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

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[-] [email protected] 20 points 1 month ago

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

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[-] [email protected] 15 points 1 month 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.

[-] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

FlorisBoard is open source and supports swipe

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

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

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

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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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[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

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

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[-] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)
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[-] [email protected] 9 points 1 month 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.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 1 month 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.

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[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 month 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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[-] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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)

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 month 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

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Thanks! Downloading now.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

God, the autocorrect is horrible nowadays. Hey Google, team is a fucking word. No, I'm not talking about a team. Fucking figure it out.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Fucking Tram! Case and point.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

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

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 month 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.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

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

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

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

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

I only have Hacker's Keyboard installed because it's the only one that's stupidly simple while also giving a full standard keyboard complete with function keys and whatnot so I have as much control over remote applications as I do messing with them at home on the actual machine with a real keyboard.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 month 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.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 month 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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[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month 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.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month 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.

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[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

I didn't realize how bad Samsung keyboard was until now. Id forgotten I never changed it on my phone (I've had my phone for like 5 years) , even though I swapped to Gboard on my Samsung watch ages ago.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago
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this post was submitted on 18 May 2025
81 points (97.6% liked)

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