I could not recommend AnySoftKeyboard to my mum. I could recommend Florisboard, tho.
Openboard is virtually dead from what I can see. So that leaves Florisboard as the only open source alternative (that I know of) that could really be used by the masses. And the world would actually be a way better place if we all opensource freaks could install Florisboard on our family/friends phones and them barely noticing anything weird.
The problem is… no word suggestions yet. It’s been years and we are still lacking what is almost an essential feature of a phone’s keyboard.
I wish I could really work on it, but I lack the knowledge to do so; so I hope I am bringing some attention to the project.
Is there any other alternative I am unaware of?
Once you use Florisboard you realise that even with all those options in AnySoftKeyboard, you cannot fully setup something as modern, well-functioning and organized as Florisboard.
There is one thing that makes me shut AnySoftKeyboard down everytime I come back and try it, which is that, when you hold down a key to show the alternative options… you have to really put your finger up over the options to select them… but only from the second row up. Makes no sense and no one seems to realise how wrong that is.
I just tried it for a few days. Using it right now. I think in 2-3 years it sill be a pretty functional keyboard for more than monolingual people.
It’s super uncustomizable now and not very functional (for me) right now.
There are open bugs because there literally no autocorrect (well one bug was closed but people aho use the beta release say that it still doesn’t work. This makes it take 2-3 fimes longer to type anything without tons of mistakes.
Haptic feedback only works if you force ignore system settings even when system vibration is on
no option to split up punctuation between comma and period so you have to search throufh a giant menu much more slowly
no keyboard layout options
“smartbar” auto hide (when enabled) simply never ever hides
spacebar swiping quickly doesn’t act reasonably. It pushes you 6-7 characters into the new paragraph
Your critique about AnySoftKeyboard is weird because people don’t realize how wrong it is because it doesn’t happen to them. You just have to hold and release for the symbol. You can slide left or right and definitely do not have to have your finger on the symbol to select it. It is likely there is a bug on your system.
I’m interested in knowing what is “more modern, well functioning, and organized” about it if AnySoftKeyboard has more features, better language support, modern autocorrect and word fill, can have the exact same layout and 10 other layoits, and is more customizable.
Still haven’t found a person who can list a feature that florisboadd has that AnySoftKeyboard doesn’t, even thouvh multiple people have said “it has more features”
We all know Florisboard has no autocorrect or word suggestions yet. The whole post is about this exactly.
Why would I want to hide the smart bar if it’s actually useful, quick and modern, unline AnySoftKeyboard… which you have a set of options that either bring too little or too much.
No keyboard layout options in Florisboard? In fact, I can do something in Florisboard that I cannot do in AnySoftKeyboard in terms of layouts: I can pick a “spanish layout” for English language. Which is perfect because I hate having to change layouts and relearn key positions, something that AnySoftKeyboard forces you to do.
In terms of features that Florisboard has that AnySoftKeyboard doesn’t… how about a modern and useful top bar that does many more things than the static AnySoftKeyboard’s? How about left-right movement with spacebar? How about swipe deletion? How about good-looking password manager integration (and not AnySoftKeyboard’s aberration)? How about being able to separate layouts and languages? Clipboard support?
Many of the “cool” modular things that AnySoftKeyboard can do are:
The difference here is that for AnySoftKeyboard to include anything that Florisboard does right would require much more work, muuuch more work (basically a full rework of the app); whereas for Florisboard integrating a fancy layout would be… a simple, one file PR.
Because it is literally not one of those things. It is almost a direct 1:1 copy of AnySoft’s utility menu except takes up an entire new row constsntly without ever hiding and is missing a few things tbat Anysoft has like split keyboard. Literally the only difference between the two besides missing features is pop-up vs persistant taking up 1-2 extra rows.
Again, what feature that is more “modern and useful”? It is completely static except that it can be manually hidden until the next character is pressed. Why even have a hide button then?
Have you ever actually used AnySoftKeyboard? They are literally the exact same down to the shapeHere is proof. The only difference is that AnySoftKeyboard respects light keyboard choice where Florisboard simply doesn’t respect day/night switches for “follow theme” or “system time” and Florisboard does not work in Firefox where AnySoft does as we also see in my screenshots.
That is pretty cool actually! It’s really a shame that there is only one keyboard layout and it is per-language standard layout of what florisboard devs “think is right”. Why can’t i have a choice of better or worse bottom rows and only get to have the worst in florisboard? Also, Anysoft has different layouts per language, just not “mix and match”
Anysoftkeyboard has that. https://github.com/AnySoftKeyboard/AnySoftKeyboard/issues/3450
Again, very interesting board and in the future it can be great! Just not yet for me personally yet. I don’t have a horse in the race, maybe the code is indeed much cleaner, better, and easier to maintain. Then it is definitely a much better future option!
It is just missing a bunch of features and advertising on a platform on the basis of "better, more modern and more features is disingenuous at best. I have a problem with people spreading disinformation and BS marketing buzzwords with no.justification as their advertisement. That’s it.