I just tried HeliBoard. Ditching Florisboard for now. I still think Florisboard has potential but it is undeveloped, and HeliBoard has everything you'd expect for a Gboard open source substitution. Let's go! Finally we have our first open source keyboard alternative without drawbacks!

[–] GravitySpoiled@lemmy.ml 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That's mean.

Florisboard is awesome.

[–] unknowing8343@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's been years without a single new feature, and it's literally lacking the most important feature of a phone keyboard.

[–] GravitySpoiled@lemmy.ml 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Without auto correct, you can seperate the wheat from the chaff. /s

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[–] birdcat@lemmy.ml 5 points 9 months ago

they are both great, but combined they would be a foss diamond of of cosmic porportions and never before reached ingenuity.

[–] beyond@linkage.ds8.zone 1 points 9 months ago

Requiring a proprietary blob for key functionality (pun intended) is a pretty major drawback, to me.

I know it's technically optional but it's a selling point of this software: "openboard but it supports swipe typing"

[–] zolax@programming.dev 1 points 9 months ago

I'm in the same position because FlorisBoard will over time have all the features that HeliBoard has but HeliBoard has those already so I may switch too

[–] Ziomster44@lemmy.zip 14 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

OP, thank you for sharing this. I think this (Heliboard) is my new favorite keyboard that satisfies my personal requirements!!! I mean it.

And to think I almost didn't click on the post because of the title 🤣...

[–] catculation@lemmy.zip 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Same I think Heliboard is the perfect replacement for gboard and Samsung keyboard.

[–] birdcat@lemmy.ml 2 points 9 months ago

yes replacement and improvement, but unexpected keyboard is true innovation. I really like it but for diacritics and "special letters" its just not as good. to type â for example i need to hold a, then select the letter, whilst in unexpected keyboard I just need to swipe a upwards right.

oh I will say it again ... those two apps need to have a baby 😅

[–] Emperor@feddit.uk 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Well that's me switched over to Heliboard. I've auditioned a few but that hits the sweet-spot. I don't seem to be getting next word suggestions yet though.

edit: the suggestions are starting to kick in now.

[–] GlassHalfHopeful@lemmy.ca 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

After trying so many keyboards for years, heliboard with swipe + futo have finally made replacing gboard possible for me. I feel like it been a 90℅ replacement, a far greater degree than some of the good (but not quite there) keyboards currently available. I've literally only been using it for a week (for two languages), but I'm really really happy thus far. 😊

[–] Dotdev@programming.dev 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Mind if I ask you how did you do it ?

[–] GlassHalfHopeful@lemmy.ca 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I downloaded the release from https://github.com/Helium314/HeliBoard and then installed.
I downloaded the swipe library linked in the page from here.
under HeliBoard settings -> advanced, I clicked "load gesture library" and selected the downloaded swipe library
and for voice input, I dish l downloaded Futo from the play store.

That's it. Just setup the apps.

[–] Dotdev@programming.dev 2 points 9 months ago

Thanks , it was quick to set up.

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[–] jeena@jemmy.jeena.net 6 points 9 months ago (2 children)

OK I'm trying heliboard now, interesting. It puts my Polish, German, English and Swedish keyboard together into one. Let's see how it'll work in the long run.

I'm especially impressed that it offers a Korean keyboard too, which I missed in all the other free alternatives. That was the main reason I stuck with the Samsung keyboard.

[–] Shamot@jlai.lu 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The multilingual support always predict words in all languages, even if you started a sentence in a specific one. And it will follow the typo rules of the first language in the list. For example, if the first language is French, it will add a space before the interrogation mark (French rule), even if you're writing in English.

[–] iturnedintoanewt@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You mean Heliboard? How does multi lingual supporth get enabled? On Swype i was able to swipe in up to two simultaneous languages, and it would always figure the language my swipes were in. Can this be replicated in Heliboard?

[–] Ziomster44@lemmy.zip 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I'm wondering the same. Sure would be nice.

EDIT: And I found it a minute after my post lol. Inside Heliboard, go to settings, find languages, don't use system languages. Add your main language, then tap it and a "hidden" menu will come up. In it is the multilingual option. Tapping it will enable you to add another language to the same Heliboard language.

[–] iturnedintoanewt@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Lol sure i have that enabled. What i meant is, there were keyboards that typed in BOTH LANGUAGES SIMULTANEOUSLY. As in depending on the swipe gesture it would match to the best likely word of the best likely language. You could type each word on a different language and it would auto magically switch languages. And it was working beautifully. On good ole Swype keyboard, back in the day.

[–] Ziomster44@lemmy.zip 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah, that's what I interpreted. That's what I enabled with the steps I mentioned. I have the English keyboard enabled in Heliboard. I tapped on it, and added Polish in the "multilingual" section.

I both typed and swiped to właśnie zdanie (this exact sentence) i słowa w nim (and the words in it). Simultaneously.

Added is a screenshot for reference. If you meant something completely different (like letter gesturing?), sorry, I don't follow.

[–] iturnedintoanewt@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Nooooo waaay!! I missed this completely! Dude thanks so much! I had no idea this was possible.

[–] jeena@jemmy.jeena.net 2 points 9 months ago

Oh BTW I agree that combining it with the feature of sliding the keys would be awesome!

[–] halfway_neko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 9 months ago

Unexpected Keyboard my beloved.

I can't type on any other keyboard now, the symbols are too far away.

[–] DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

OK - count me as another convert to Heliboard. This is what I hoped Openboard would achieve. Awesome.

[–] uninvitedguest@lemmy.ca 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Coming from Gboard, HeliBoard + Futo voice input is a pretty great. Outside of lacking emoji search and having an always visible voice key, it checks nearly all the boxes. However, it doesn't check them all. Is there any reason why I would use this combo over Gboard with network connectivity disabled?

[–] beyond@linkage.ds8.zone 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

If you want software that gives you the four freedoms (to use, share, modify, and share modified copies) then blocking network access is orthogonal to that.

The free software movement is often misunderstood as being about privacy or internet access but it's really about control over your computing, being able to make your computer do what you want, and sharing your improvements with the community.

Although, the FUTO app itself is already proprietary and the Heliboard uses a proprietary blob for swipe typing.