I’m looking to replace gboard and I have spent about a decade using gesture based typing. Is there any alternative that is private that gesture based typing actually work on?
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Futo Keyboard has built in Swype functionality.
Heliboard also has it, but I believe you do have to download Google’s swype libraries to use the functionality. Whether that affects privacy, I don’t know.
Edit: (See calm.like.a.bomb’s comment below)
Whether that affects privacy, I don’t know.
It doesn’t. Heliboard doesn’t use network connections at all.
And if it weren’t like that, we can also block connections with NetGuard ;)
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Awesome. I will give these two a go. Appreciate it!
How do I get the gboard Swype library I can’t find the tiny download Button. Helio that is
Try this page. You have to go in to the folder that corresponds to your device, the above link takes you to the Arm chipset code which should be good for a mobile android device. You should see the raw button in the right hand corner, and the download button should be near it as well. If you’re on mobile, tap the three dots and the download button should show up in the menu.
Perfect thank you!
I tried two browsers and couldn’t find the tiny download button. Finally, I figured it out. Follow the link from the Heliboard page, I’m using a Pixel so I opened arm64-v8a, tap the file and “view raw” should be visible. Tapping this should bring up a download window. Go into Heliboard > settings > advanced > load gesture typing library.
paradox2011 actually linked right to it. I’m using same phone as you. Thank you all the same. Im liking it OK so far but the swiping isn’t as good as gboard but I’m sure it will learn.
Your welcome. I’ll leave my comment up encase it helps someone.
Omg, how have I not heard about FUTO before now? It’s so good, I can actually have proper voice input now! Gboard works fine for 95% of stuff with its internet connection cut (I use CalyxOS, so I have it disabled in the firewall), but voice input (despite it supposedly all being local processing) still needed an internet connection to function. No more!!!
HeliBoard but the problem is that you have to download google swipe librairies…
This works just as well as gboard!
Open source or not, my question is, is my typing data consumed by Google in this context? I’m not an expert in the realm of android libraries and their connectivity or lack thereof, but I’m fine with using a closed source library knowing the data stays on my device.
None whatsoever. You’re good to use heliboard with the gesture input library. There is also the FUTO keyboard, which somehow has a gesture input library built in. I would presume theirs is FOSS but I’ve not done my homework on this.
E: as someone else mentioned, you can deny network permission for gboard with ROMs like LineageOS, GrapheneOS, CalyxOS etc. This is what I did for many years until heliboard came along.
If you’re using something like graphene OS, use gboard and deny it network permissions.
Or use another app like tracker control to deny it internet access.
Try to use something like TC (TrackerControl) to restrict the internet connectivity of the app once libraries downloaded.
Nothing can replace the original Swype for me. I want something new, but all alternatives are deficient
As a Heliboard enthusiast and pretty happy with it, I would like to ask you what you find wrong with it, what you miss from the original ?
One of the biggest thing is the actual swipe detection success rate - I have tried heli and others and I find that you need to swipe slower and more precisely for words to register. Also, when wrong word is detected, Swype will typically have the right word suggested in bar above keyboard for a one tap correction, not the case for me on others where no word is often the wrong word is suggested to correct. For example, almost like some of them suggest too literally and lack context - this is tough to describe, so bear worth me, so I try to swipe the word “she” let’s say, and the board detects “the” and the suggested words to correct have more of a relationship to “the”, so think “then” “them” “theirs” maybe, but the logic isn’t starting with other derivations of three letter words ending with “he” that have relevant letters near the “T” on a qwerty keyboard (which Swype feels less likely to do in my experience).
Otherwise, there are customizing options and other UI choices that I prefer with Swype. It’s definitely gotten worse over the years since it stopped being actively supported, but I’m so glad it’s still functional in some capacity. I wish everyone with FOSS skill would really deep to replicate the Swype experience with the APKs still floating around.
I miss the “swipe to punctuation” from Swype. Typically, “w-e-.-l-l” to prompt “we’ll” instead of “well”. The other thing is the long press option on the main keyboard only has one alternate character. The secondary keyboard has more. I like it, use it as my daily driver & I’d recommend it.
Many only support a few languages.
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