Material 3 (not worth adding 1.5 MB to app size)
yes it is! Like am i insane to think that 1.5mb is absolutely worth it>
I agree. Especially as the app is already 20 MB in size... 1.5MB wouldn't make much difference IMO.
what?
HOLO LIFE
I switched from gboard yesterday, added the swipe lib.. I wish there were a standard keyboard layout but other than that it's 🔥. It needs emoji search though.
You can add special emoji suggestion dictionary, so emojis come up in the top row as you type.
How do you add a dictionary?
Lifesaver
YES emoji search would be amazing!
We're in 2024 and you don't think 1.5mb extra package size is worth it for better polish and a user experience?
Yeah, what the hell lol
I switched to this a month or so ago and haven't looked back. The only thing I miss is the ability to add gifs but that's not a big deal.
I miss the gifts, and would love a kB that I can swap to in order to add a gif.
What I miss most is emoji search and recommendation. There's so many that I can never find the one I want when scrolling though each page.
Yes, it's a long list of emojis, a reply below links to how you can add an English emoji dictionary. I just followed the instructions and it works well. 👍
I test drove Heliboard the past week and I quite liked it, especially the customization options. I've been trying to escape Gboard for years but viable options with swipe typing support are few and far between.
Unfortunately, the lack of Japanese input makes it a total non-starter for my use case so I had to go crawling back.
Thanks for this. I was about to ask if Japanese input was supported. Why is it so hard to find a good keyboard for both Japanese and English? I usually have to end up sacrificing convenience in one or the other.
Unfortunately, the lack of Japanese input makes it a total non-starter for my use case so I had to go crawling back.
Ack, I also need that. Oof. Guess I'll have to keep looking.
It's a pity it doesn't work for you right now, but I'd recommend to keep an eye on it since it's under active development and you might see Japanese input added soon. You could also check open issues on GitHub or open a new one and give feedback about this need.
I had looked into it but given this response it's not looking likely.
I personally use Mozc whenever I need japanese input
Mozc is available on android? Guess I got some looking to do.
Yes it is, it's based on Gboard tho
How can I know this keyboard is secure? Reading all the source code feels impractical.
It doesn't even declare any network access permissions (and according to the README's policy, it won't in the future), so it couldn't even be a keylogger.
Despite widespread misinformation, that isn't actually true. You DO NOT need to declare the Internet permission in an Android app. Google removed the requirement about 10 years ago when they realized pretty much every single app used the Internet permission. You only need it now if you are using sockets
Do you have any sources or docs on that? Sounds pretty backwards but also new to me. I pretty recently tried to download images (using Glide) without any special permissions and it failed since the app was missing the android.permission.INTERNET declaration (just like HeliBoard)
I don't have a reputable source (only stack overflow) because Google's docs are misleading. They say you need INTERNET and ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE permissions but it simply isn't true. I wonder if they regret the decision but can't change it now because it could break older apps?
Could it log to some type of storage and a different app with network permissions upload it? I’m not an Android dev, just thinking aloud.
I mean... You could be paranoid about any app doing that
Not any app has direct access to every key that you type like the keyboard app does. It has all access to literally every PII you enter in using it. If any app needs additional scrutiny it would be the keyboard.
Fwiw, my cousin says it's clean. But he's a bit of a dick. He does code for a living though, so there's that.
Love your work, this is fucking great! I've been looking for a decent replacement for Swiftkey for a while now. Anysoftkeyboard is fine, but the emoji and swipe support is less than stellar. Once installed and configured this works great. Solid, clean, simple, intuitive.
I have a few less tech-savvy friends also looking to ditch Swiftkey. I'd love to recommend this but they're going to need a drop in replacement; the lack of swipe and emoji prediction out-of-the-box is going to be a deal breaker. Please keep working on this project, it's genuinely awesome! Looking forward to the next update.
How I do that ?
Open the app and scroll up to refresh.
Thanks, I ended in the parameters and found the repositories, but not how to update them.
I think there is an auto refresh setting -daily/weekly/monthly/manual.
Any time. I had to check to remember how.
I am surprised at how much more responsive my phone is now. GBoard wad 495 MiB, HeliBoard is nearly 34 MiB. (No idea how much was loaded into RAM.)
Edit: I am aware of the cognitive bias of newness. My phone has 3 GiB of RAM, so it is possible there was a real impact.
It's great seeing HeliBoard come so far, especially after it seemed like OpenBoard was potentially dead. I'm still a (firewalled on CalyxOS) GBoard user, but HeliBoard is the closest I've found to a viable replacement for it. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what future developments it has in store.
+1 for heliboard, been using it for a while and its a great replacement for Openboard.
I cannot believe how responsive this keyboard is. Absolutely love it and I have multilingual typing enabled. The swiping is also incredibly smooth after loading the library they suggested. Stunning
This is amazing. Switched from SwiftKey, it has much better customizability and I love how emojis are shown really large in the picker (a bit too large in fact, but much better than the teensy tiny ones in SwiftKey).
At this point I'd only wish for two things, and they're both quite minor, and one slightly bigger thing:
- (Super minor) Remove the language text on the spacebar if only one dictionary is enabled.
- (Minor) Either allow scaling of emoji and kaomoji in the picker, or scale them down regardless. In fact Kaomoji break across lines looking kinda fucked due to how big they are.
- (Probably bigger) A search field in the emoji picker
Emoji search is planned and for now, you can add additional dictionary for emoji suggestions in the top bar. Here's how
Oh awesome! TY!
Is it better than FlorisBoard?
This is my question also
Yes. In every way, imo.
I think so too. You need a non-free library for glide typing, but with it it works like charm.
It's additional because the recommended gesture typing libraries (I believe it's one made by Google?) are closed-source, so an open-source project wouldn't be able to share them within the repository or release and keep the open-source label because a component would be closed-source.
There are open-source gesture typing libraries out there but they're such a bother to set up I just accept the proprietary software. In HeliBoard it took me a few moments to have it going.
I am going to check this out because I am cuurently using Florisboard which I haven't been too thrilled with.
HOOOOOOB
astank
My thoughts exactly
Just updated my f Droid, is heliboard not up now? Can't find it via search.
Edit, had to update repositories too. My bad!
It should be available in the main F-Droid repo. It has been only on IzzyOnDroid for a while, but I can already see version 1.2 on the official F-Droid repo too.
Unexpected Keyboard is still my go-to for termux
it's still my go-to keyboard for everything
Suggestions?
none
I don't really understand where to download that Swipe Lib. Can somebody give me a Pointer?
From the project's GitHub page, this is the link: https://github.com/erkserkserks/openboard/tree/46fdf2b550035ca69299ce312fa158e7ade36967/app/src/main/jniLibs
(If you have a modern phone, you'll want the arm64-v8a build)
The keyboard settings will tell you which one you need when you go to add it also.
Thanks :)
Looks awesome! Is a Chinese input method in the works, by any chance? I'm still using Swype & Dragon that has been removed from google play 5 years ago as there is so far no decent alternative, and especially not in the FOSS space.
Thank you for recommending this. Gesture typing works great with the added library, and text suggestions are working nicely too!
It's great, but how can I install the glide library? I can't see any link...
Here's a link to the open board github where I downloaded it. If you don't want to take my word for it you can find it linked on heliboard github, the link just didn't get copied from their readme.
Thanks!
I only miss the smiley button
What wonderful timing given my recent post
The toolbar padding looks weird (top padding too low) and the toolbar key size is too small as well. But all in all totally usable alternative.
And OMG I love the glide typing it just works 🫠
Definitely check out the Hidden functionality part of the readme (it's also in this post's body)
It's working great. I only can't get multi language and the emoji dictionary to work. The help page says I need to change the spell checker in the android settings but I can't find that option 🤔
I'll give it a shot. I have always been a big fan of swipe to text. But lately the autocorrect options have been shit anyway. I don't know if its Google to blame or if its Motorola that has too small of a side bezel causing my palms to create a fake swipe.
I would love to switch off gboard, but really need it to support the following:
seamless switching between spanish and english (for duolingo) Emoji support some form of Gifboard.
Anyone know if this supports that?
Under advanced you can enable swipe to change language. Then you can swipe up from space to cycle through your languages. I find it quick enough. No idea about gifs but holding return you can insert emojis.
No, no lo sé.
Select text and press shift to switch between uppercase, lowercase, and capitalize words
I love it 🤩🤩
Anybody know how deep keyboard history is? I'd like something like 10+
Thanks for sharing! Living the keyboard so far.
If there is anything I would change it would be to make the emoji view the default long press for enter and for it to scroll horizontally.
I partially miss the built in gif integration, but it's really cool to have dual finger typing again.
Yeah, it's silly, but I switch back to the default board to send a gif and then switch back.
Looks good although not sure it will replace Multiling O Keyboard for me. That keyboard still seems to have unparalleled layout customization options.
Multilingo is sooo damn customizable. It's kinda bonkers
actually if you want a customizable keyboard, Samsung one probably has no competition
but then it's proprietary and the default english spell checker uses grammarly, which is widely considered a keylogger...
That's with Keys Cafe, right? Have seen that module, but have never looked into it much. Will check it out later.
yeah
Tried it out and it has decent customization although Multiling O still provides more options. That said I think I will give it a shot and maybe finally move to Samsung keyboard since its dictionary and swipe are much better, plus it has some cool features like underlined spelling mistakes, emoji search and translate straight from keyboard.
Edit: Think I have found a deal breaker. My language has diacritics so I need a modifier key to quickly type without holding a key and choosing letter from pop up. There is an option using ALT as modifier, but when it is enabled, keyboard layout is not the standard one where you get like a V shape, second row keys are right under first row and it throws off my typing.
Looks like a perfect board to migrate to....
Any plans to add Colemak layouts? I know I'm in the minority here, but its what I'm used to!
Edit: tapping on the language lets me add it! Perfect!
Wow this is perfect for the Samsung Z Fold. The split keyboard being tablet only actually works out with the separate screens.
If you just want a keyboard with no dictionary then... -> simple keyboard
So it's open-source and has even more than Gboard 😁
Someting close to this for ios ?.
I think the best option for iOS is the default keyboard sadly
Can I choose dvorak yet?
Yupp I do ☺️
How do you get to that setting? I swear it used to be under "Languages and Layouts", I don't see an option for Dvorak.
Tap your language of choice, it opens a popup with options to select all the layouts. Slightly hidden, took me a minute to find.
Thanks
Go to Languages Then English then next to layout there is a Plus Symbol.
Nice! Downloaded and configured. Looks like a great gboard replacement
Any way/plans to make it an almost 1:1 Gboard replacement including layout and Material You styling support? I use FlorisBoard with Gboardish rn to achieve that, but it's got some issues like missing word suggestions
For Florisboard, you'll have to wait for v0.5 for suggestions
https://github.com/florisboard/florisboard/blob/master/ROADMAP.md