I wanna switch to FOSS alternatives but swiping is either funky (FUTO) or not available for now (Floris). I ended up downgrading gboard to an older version since all this emoji stuff (especially the bitmoji sticker nonsense) really grinds my gears.
this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2025
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Get Heliboard and then download a gesture library such as this: https://github.com/erkserkserks/openboard/blob/master/app/src/main/jniLibs/arm64-v8a/libjni_latinimegoogle.so
Heliboard is on F-Droid.
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Did you try Heliboard? It can be setup to swipe, though I mostly tap type. When i have used the swipe it has worked well though. I have been using it for over a year now and really like it.
Swiping seems to work fine on Heliboard (I guess because it uses the same proprietary library as gboard)
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All I want is for gboard to stop hijacking my default keyboard. I set futo for a reason and I meant it.
You could just uninstall it.
wrong
Edit: just noticed it also keeps turning on background mobile data usage dispite me having explicitly disabled that.
Can't you still remove this stuff via ADB?
yes, you can. I think it was these 2 lines โ
adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.touchtype.swiftkey
adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.swiftkey.swiftkeyconfigurator
Thank you, I will try
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That's weird. What phone and OS? I've had to explicitly install it on my phones for as long as I can remember: https://i.imgur.com/8MlcpuK.png
Maybe you have to disable it as a keyboard in settings first?
This is a pixel 8 running stock android 15. There is no option to disable unlike other preinstalled apps.
If you happen to have a bingo in your hand, this comment is a free mark in the "this is why foss apps are better" spot. Though you have probably seen one already.
I like this. But this should be an option.
The keys are not even the size they are on the screen, whatโs getting drawn is just a grid of letters. Touch keyboards are far more complicated than you think.
Yeah. Iโm gonna guess this types about the same. This is probally just an aesthetic change for the appearance of being โNew!โ.
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Kinda reminded me of this post
https://feddit.org/post/8032101
Albeit the kerning on those virtual keys are making me all itchy. Horrible horrible implementation from Google yet again when they could've done it right.
๐คฎ
maybe the idea is that round keys will have less typos than rectangular keys that are all touching each other?
Hopefully with the more available space between the keys, then there will be less typos.
I type with my thump cause I like to use my phone one handed but I get a lot of typos due to that.
Florisboard beta keyboard lets you increase that available space even further by decreasing the letter size. It's still missing other features tho, like word suggestions, auto correct etc.
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The fuck? If youโre gonna change the shape of the keys, at least make them hexagons. Because as we all know, hexagons are the bestagons.
Also then the clickable area would be bigger reducing errors. I tried a keyboard that did this once. Was a rough transition, but I managed. Unfortunately I ended up going back since it was lacking some other features.
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Ew
Good time for FOSS keyboard apps to get some more love
Heliboard and Futo were the recommendations from what I remember?
OpenBoard still works well for me. Including swiping and auto correct.
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Futo has been my favorite so far compared to other keyboards. I haven't used Heliboard yet, but it also looks like a good option.
I use the futo keyboard as well, but autocorrect and swiping is not good at all. correctly spelt words constantly gets changed for me, clipboard doesn't see what I copy too many times and swiping inaccuracy is too frequent.
only reason I put up with it is for the futo microphone. mic app is in a league of it's own
The voice transcription is just OpenAI whisper but yeah it's pretty great. I used it to write this.
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I had the same problem, but I found that turning up the advanced Parameter Values in the Text Prediction settings helps to keep everything spelled correctly. I'm currently at 10.4 for the transformer strength and 8.3 for the autocorrect threshold and I'm noticing a lot less issues.... I haven't tested out turning it up all the way yet.
I also have the Transformer fine tuning enabled.
The swipe feature definitely needs some attention.
They do have a crowdsourced way of helping to improve their swipe prediction, more info on the link here: https://swipe.futo.org/
You'll notice that even the swipe prediction for Heliboard comes from a closed source library.
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I haven't had any of those issues. Out of curiosity, what version of futo keyboard are you running?
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We didn't ask for the red to pink colour fade on the Youtube playbar either but here we are...
HOLY SHIT. Thank you. That's what that is. I thought my screen was wonky or my eyesight was failing. It's not even really linear, it just looks like the last 3cm of the bar are pink
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Circles and round and we live them. Let's make all the buttons in our UI round.
- Google probably
For about a decade now google has been changing shit for no particular reason, this is just the latest.
They learned it from Microsoft.
I have avoided Microsoft software for 25 years or so, so I don't have any reference point, but there was a time when Google lead the pack in innovation, that's no longer the case.
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The reason is their internal promotion culture. You cant get promoted without global impact, so buckle up we are changing things so we can get promoted not because it's better.
God how many things have changed on my phone that I did not ask them to. Changing the font on the clock. Changing the lock screen layout. REMOVING FROGGY WEATHER BEING BACK FROGGY YOU FUCKS.
Marketing and design teams just have to justify their existence. Makes for annoying stupid changes.
Don't get me started.
Gmail for business has been renamed at least four times.
Google Home changed layout for no particular reason and made everything an extra click away.
Google Assistant removed perfectly working actions, try turning on your A/C at 3am in the morning whilst you're sleeping.
Android changes navigation modes making everything worse.
Gmail keeps changing its layout.
Google Admin moves sections around for no reason.
Google search returns worse results every week.
Google Gemini is infecting every service.
Google Sites removed simple blogging functionality without any alternative.
Free services for life are now paid.
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Basically, they have nothing else to do, so they just throw shit at the wall to see what sticks.
Sticky touchscreen for haptic feedback?
Sir, you earned yourself an extra piss break!
That's just their way they keep it alive. If it were actually good, Google would cancel it.
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