So, up front, I’ll admit I’m one of those guys that gets hung up on tiny, largely irrelevant quirks in apps. Yeah, I’m great fun at parties.
So, what’s your favourite keyboard app? I keep coming back to SwiftKey. I feel like it’s the best typing experience for me, with fairly accurate prediction and correction — although it’s far from perfect, of course. I’ve seen plenty of people complain about it, and apart from Microsoft adding Bing to it, it’s not received much in the way of innovation or useful updates since they bought it.
I particularly like that a long press on the backspace key will delete one whole word at a time, speeding up the longer you hold it down. I simply haven’t found the backspace methods on Gboard or the Samsung keyboard (which used to be Swype I guess?) to be as predictable or reliable. Gboard’s swipe back doesn’t feel predictable in what it will do, and Samsung’s backspace is more like iOS.
I also find SwiftKey to be the best at remembering sequences of words; if I start typing my address, it’ll generally remember each successive word and offer it as the main prediction on the top row. Samsung and Gboard both do that to some extent, but I just haven’t found them to be as reliably predictable in the results.
On the other hand, I hate that SwiftKey doesn’t can’t add an image to its clipboard. Copying and pasting images is a breeze with both Gboard and Samsung’s keyboard, but with SwiftKey I pretty much have to download/screengrab and upload any image I want to insert in a chat or post.
So, that’s it. Rant over! What’s your favourite keyboard app, and does anything irritate you about it?
You must log in or register to comment.
I have tried so many keyboards, FOSS one included but nothing is as refined as Gboard without internet access.
How do you disable internet access for Gboard?
Something like Netguard or RethinkDNS will work. Basically an app that creates a firewall using the VPN slot.
Minuum Keyboard master race!
Glad to hear Minuum is still up and running. I couldn’t get super comfortable with it, but I love the concept… and I still remember that first, awful announcement video with the poorly mixed vocals that made it sound like the founder’s name was Will Wompwomp.
I still think it’s the future of keyboards. I will die on the hill that QWERTY makes zero logical sense for touchscreen keyboards and that not utilising machine learning for fuzzy typing is a waste of processor.
I’m gonna say messagease is totally better.
Ooh, just seen one of the developers of Lemmy made a successor for MessageEase https://www.f-droid.org/packages/com.dessalines.thumbkey/
I never got into it 😞
I remember using and loving minuum when it came out especially because I had a smaller phone at the time. But it hasn’t updated in quite a while.
Are there any other keyboard apps out there that have the same layout options?
Sadly no other keyboard with the same layout yet. I’m still hoping for a patched version, maybe Revanced or for someone just to recreate it as an open source release.
Grammarly bc it makes really good suggestions bc i word oorly.
I love Multiling, but unfortunately it is not actively supported anymore
Super customisable, helpful for a Colemak user like, and shortcuts for select all, copy, paste etc in ALL text inputs even if they blocked such things. Also many ways to customize text and things like special symbols etc
I use Gboard because it just works. I would like to move to a FOSS keyboard but every one I’ve tried become frustrating to use.
GBoard without internet access is good compromise for me.
Yep. Much as I hate to say it, GBoard just feels good in a way that none of the other major swipe keyboards have for me.
Same, I scrolled too far to find another gboard user lol.
If you just want to distance yourself from Google, give OpenBoard a try. It’s GBoard without the G. It’s been working just the same for me, except for some reason it spontaneously decided to stop automatically capitalizing “I”.
Thank you for that recommendation. Was using AnySoftKeyboard for ages and got very frustrated with autocorrect and space bar position. Now, I can ditch it for something that works.
I’m replying with open board, let’s see how it does.
There’s a fork of OpenBoard that enables Glide typing, in case you’re in interested in that:
I agree. I’ve tried so many FOSS keyboards and no matter how hard I try, I just have to go back to gboard. It’s wild how hard it is to find a good keyboard. I can’t even use the stock Samsung one anymore
Every few months I keep re-trying SwiftKey and the Samsung Keyboard, but I keep going back to GBoard because when I swipe it gets it right a lot more of the time than the other two.
I’m still using swype. Nothing else competes, and the two closest are owned by the two companies I’m least willing to use a keyboard by.
Used Swype until cancelled. Tried many gesture keyboards and Gboard is best now.
Kinda loving florisboard atm
Kinda unfortunate it hasn’t been updated for a very long while.
I’ve been using it as my main keyboard for a while now. It does work well enough, but yes, lacks some features and I am also concerned why its not updated anymore.
The dev is working on beta 5. But did not give an ETA. Source florisboards matrix chat
Relevant github discussion https://github.com/florisboard/florisboard/discussions/2197
How’s the gesture recognition accuracy? I long for the days of swype but gboard is the only one that’s come close to me.
I think it’s a little worse than GB, but I’ve not used GB for years so I can’t compare directly. It works almost perfectly when I give at least some effort into hitting the right keys, and then there’s always the suggestions, so unless I’m really careless or typing some unusual words, it’s good.
GB also took me very long to get used to…
I use Gboard because the prediction is better than the others. As a Japanese speaker, the choice is limited.
Hey yo I also type 50/50 in Japanese and English and came here wondering if there were any Gboard alternatives out there yet.
Any FOSS keyboard recommendations that support simplified Chinese?
Google keyboard by a mile but before that Samsung keyboard which I still love, anyway I have zero interest in trying other keyboards
I use Openboard. I migrated from iOS and found Openboard to be the most familiar, with key borders turned on in settings.
I use GBoard but since you asked for favorite, mine is Word Flow, Windows Phone’s keyboard. When MS killed Windows Phone they kind of ported it to iOS but never to Android.
The Windows 10 keyboard is very similar to this Word Flow and the closest I’ve been to recreate it on Android is using RBoard and the Xbox theme but since I don’t have a real reason to root I haven’t done it again, so I’m just using the regular GBoard. Also, last time I checked (few years ago) the Xbox theme didn’t have a dark mode so that’s another reason not to use it.
I’d use SwiftKey but they keys are to thin. I’ve tried using skins like the Surface Duo but still too thin for me.
Another keyboard I liked was TouchPal but I believe was removed from the Play Store for having malware, if I recall correctly.
