this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
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I'm looking for a privacy-respecting open-source android keyboard, and so far I've found:

Does anyone have any experience with these (or other alternative keyboards)? Which one would you recommend?

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[–] fernandu00@lemmy.ml 19 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I use openboard but it gets me mad sometimes when I start deleting characters and it removes the space between the last word..sometimes it's really annoying!

[–] SomeBoyo@feddit.de 8 points 1 year ago

That weirdly only happens on jerboa for me

[–] Rinna@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Is it while using Jeroba for Lemmy? I had that problem with that app so I switched to Sync for that reason.

[–] fernandu00@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

No way I didn't see that! I thought it was while using the English keyboard since it doesn't happen in message apps and the only place I use English keyboard is in Lemmy (jerboa) .. I'll switch to other app

[–] Lemmchen@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That's a Jerboa bug with any keyboard AFAICT. Insane how this hasn't been fixed yet.

[–] pimento64@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 year ago

That's due to a bug with the AOSP keyboard that google has been ignoring for like 6 years.

[–] CAPSLOCKFTW@feddit.de 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I use FlorisBoard. It's not perfect, but it has a fully featured clipboard and undo-redo functionality. Missing the swipe tho.

[–] zerodawn@leaf.dance 3 points 1 year ago (6 children)
[–] CAPSLOCKFTW@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Only for english, which isn't my main language.

[–] zerodawn@leaf.dance 4 points 1 year ago

Ah, my apologies, i didn't know it was only limited to english

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[–] tty84@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Here's my lazy and unpopular solution

[–] Umbrias 5 points 1 year ago

Ill go ahead and snail mail my boss lol.

[–] DengueDucky@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I use Gboard but with internet access disabled for it. I haven't found a comparable open source keyboard yet.

[–] wax@lemmy.wtf 4 points 1 year ago

Same. Tried openboard again two weeks ago, but had to switch back. The predictions were just too bad

[–] 1984 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I can't do that on my side, perhaps because it's a system app on my Pixel phone? Or do I need to be rooted for that?

[–] DengueDucky@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

It isn't a system app for my phone, so maybe. You could still use something like InviziblePro or RethinkDNS to disable its internet access without root though.

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[–] Contort3860@links.hackliberty.org 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Just adding Simple Keyboard here as well. It has no features besides typing. It's literally just a keyboard. Been using it for a bit and like it, but it won't be for everyone.

[–] TheBestAdmin@social.pluto.lat 3 points 1 year ago

+1. Took some time for me to adapt, but since then it's been a good experience. Been using since 2022.

[–] ashtrix@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] And009@reddthat.com 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Does it support ota updates by any chance?

[–] lea@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Might want to look into Obtainium, automatic updates from any git repo.

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[–] Coeus@coeus.sbs 3 points 1 year ago

This was a one off that hasn't been updated in almost a year. I doubt it's getting any more updates.

[–] strawberry@artemis.camp 3 points 1 year ago

holy shit this is perfect

[–] Pantherina@feddit.de 6 points 1 year ago

All good but Florisboard has an internal clipboard with past entries. If you use its buttons (change in the settings, top row) and not the android ones, the system never gets your clipboard

[–] moosetwin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

my dumbass thought you were referring to a physical keyboard

[–] Coeus@coeus.sbs 3 points 1 year ago

Open source physical keyboards do exist though

[–] mat@linux.community 5 points 1 year ago

Any keyboard with no internet permission should be "privacy-respecting", as it can't (as I understand it) send any data back to the developers. I'm personally a big fan of Unexpected Keyboard, though it's definitely something to get used to.

[–] 7heo@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)
[–] Samsy@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] 7heo@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
[–] Samsy@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Yes, that's annoying. I stay away from Jerboa because of this error.

[–] Privacy@monero.town 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I use open board since forever and always hoped they get gesture... Why would I need to find it this way haha.. Thanks

[–] Samsy@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Because this fork uses a propetary library. That's the only downer here. Florisboard and AnyKeyboard try to reinvent it OpenSource.

[–] orizuru@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Thanks! Giving it a try, so far it's my favorite.

[–] hottari@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Any keyboard that doesn't have an internet connection.

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[–] Zacryon@feddit.de 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Privacy respecting, but not open source:

Typewise

(Also a lot less typos and faster writing once you get used to it.)

[–] nottheengineer@feddit.de 4 points 1 year ago

Florisboard is my daily driver and I have unexpected keyboard so I can do proper VNC sessions from my phone.

[–] strawberry@artemis.camp 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] strawberry@artemis.camp 4 points 1 year ago

@ashtrix shared a link for open board with gestures, this is what I use now

[–] randint@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

Try Thumb-Key. It's a keyboard made by Lemmy's main developer. It uses a rather exotic layout, but once you get used to it, it is so much better than qwerty.

[–] Onezero@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

Any of them have good support for foldables? (I.e. Full keyboard on cover screen, thumb keyboard on main screen)

[–] filgas08@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

my favorite is unexpected keyboard. it takes a while to get used to but once you do it's way faster than any othet keyboard.

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[–] rar@discuss.online 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's a long shot, but does anyone know if CJK languages (not romanizations) are supported in any of these?

[–] hdzki@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The alpha version of FlorisBoard has preliminary support for shape based Chinese layouts so you can write 汉字/漢字 with say, Cangjie or Zhengma. It also has the JIS kana layout for Japanese. Although, it doesn't support Kanji Substitution yet, but you could use the shape based Chinese layouts for that in the meanwhile. As for Korean, it's supported but no Hanja support yet.

While there isn't a release for it yet, you can take any release artifact from the GitHub Actions CI and it should have it.

[–] randint@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Try https://github.com/osfans/trime. It has multiple input schemas (i.e. pinyin, zhuyin, cangjie, etc.) to choose from, and they are great for typing Chinese. Admittedly it only supports the C in CJK, but it is absolutely worth a try if you don't need Japanese or Korean.

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