I haven’t really found a particularly good alternative. I used to use AnySoftKeyboard, but stopped after I found that it was the cause of some performance issues I was having that would occasionally cause characters to be entered out-of-order on a slower Android device.
The lack of decent open source onscreen keyboards was actually one of my larger surprises when I hit Android. I thought that there’d be keyboards with user-specified macro keys, keys that could be dragged into a new layout or added and removed, etc, but no.
I have been using OpenBoard recently and it feels exactly like GBoard, except I have an issue where using backspace/deleting characters also randomly removes spaces from words I’ve already typed. So words will start gettingmashedtogetherlikethis. Unfortunately it seems unmaintained so I guess I will just have to move back to GBoard for now.
Well, there is Florisboard but it hasn’t received an update for about 10 months. (Edit: found out its still developing but I think its sloooooowww)
Openboard is ok.
AnySoftKeyboard is ok.
Simple Keyboard looks too simple.
Eh, i use florisboard. it doesnt exactly suit my needs, but it gets the job done.
Thanks, I’ll take a look. I don’t use glide typing myself.
EDIT: I don’t think that I’ve tried this one. The support for terminal keys is great – I use Termux, as well as the abilitty to remove the voice typing key. Good access to mathematical symbols.
There’s no autocorrection support, which the major keyboards have. The spacebar horizontal drag to move the cursor has acceleration that differs feom the gboard one; I prefer gboard there. There is no quick access to some characters that I like, like superscript characters and em-dash.
*Gboard is preparing to add an entirely new kind of activity to log and send to Google along with all of your normal keystrokes
GBoard is actually federated since 2017🤦♂️
https://ai.googleblog.com/2017/04/federated-learning-collaborative.html?m=1
This is good from the privacy point of view right?
But maybe bad from your phone resources being used to train Google’s platforms.
I haven’t really found a particularly good alternative. I used to use AnySoftKeyboard, but stopped after I found that it was the cause of some performance issues I was having that would occasionally cause characters to be entered out-of-order on a slower Android device.
The lack of decent open source onscreen keyboards was actually one of my larger surprises when I hit Android. I thought that there’d be keyboards with user-specified macro keys, keys that could be dragged into a new layout or added and removed, etc, but no.
I have been using OpenBoard recently and it feels exactly like GBoard, except I have an issue where using backspace/deleting characters also randomly removes spaces from words I’ve already typed. So words will start gettingmashedtogetherlikethis. Unfortunately it seems unmaintained so I guess I will just have to move back to GBoard for now.
Well, there is Florisboard but it hasn’t received an update for about 10 months. (Edit: found out its still developing but I think its sloooooowww)
Openboard is ok.
AnySoftKeyboard is ok.
Simple Keyboard looks too simple.
Eh, i use florisboard. it doesnt exactly suit my needs, but it gets the job done.
I use Unexpected Keyboard when I’m working in Termux. It’s Open Source and does allow some layout customization.
Unfortunately it doesn’t support “glide/swipe typing” so I find it doesn’t replace Gboard for everyday usage.
Thanks, I’ll take a look. I don’t use glide typing myself.
EDIT: I don’t think that I’ve tried this one. The support for terminal keys is great – I use Termux, as well as the abilitty to remove the voice typing key. Good access to mathematical symbols.
There’s no autocorrection support, which the major keyboards have. The spacebar horizontal drag to move the cursor has acceleration that differs feom the gboard one; I prefer gboard there. There is no quick access to some characters that I like, like superscript characters and em-dash.
It’s definitely a worthy competitor, thanks.
I use SwiftKey, I prefer giving my data to Microsoft than Google, Microsoft sells products while you are Googles product.
Microsoft sells you as a product while also having the gall to charge you for it
I usually have internet access disabled for Gboard.
This! 😁
Just disable internet access. Your data will be local :D