Couple related questions...

I have been toggling back and forth between these 3 keyboards:

  • GBoard (with network off)
  • OpenBoard
  • AnySoftKeyboard

Purely from a usability standpoint I have to admin Gboard works best for me. Openboard is ok and I'm spending more time trying out AnySoftKeyboard which seems much better than Openboard.

From a security standpoint - are all these equal if I deny network priveleges? I'm always nervous using anything 'google' but their keyboard is functionally excellent.

    I just wanted to mention that FlorisBoard is very similar to Gboard in appearance and overall UX. The one critical feature it lacks is word suggestions (predictive text), but that is expected to arrive with the 0.40 release (currently at v0.3.16).

    To answer your question though, one of the things that Gboard lacks, from a security viewpoint, is transparency. It is proprietary software and so the source code is unavailable for review. OpenBoard, AnySoftKeyboard and FlorisBoard are all open source projects, providing transparency with respect to privacy and security.

    That said, I too use Gboard as it provides me with the best experience, but I do look forward to FlorisBoard v0.40.

      lcalamar If you're a big fan of Gboard's overall appearance and layout, you might find these settings useful:

      • Display language on space bar: Off

      • Layout

        • Keyboard height: 110%
        • Key spacing: 2.5 dp horizontal
        • Bottom offset: 15 dp
      • Sounds & Vibration

        • Trigger vibration directly: Off
        • Key repeated action vibration: Off
        • Gesture moving swipe vibration: Off

        lcalamar Wanted to reply to my own post here and clarify my 'couple' of questions...

        Originally when posting this I was going to ask how keyboards worked w/in browsers. I use both Mull (for when I need extensions (e.g.: bypasspaywalls...), and Vanadium (for most everything else).

        • it seemed that when using a keyboard w/in a browser window - the keyboard functionality was very limited?
        • however - now that I'm switching keyboards - is it possible this was an issue regarding OpenBoard? Seems the other keyboards I'm trying don't have that issue?

        lcalamar Open the FlorisBoard app and go to Keyboard. It should start to make sense from there. In the aplpha release, they've renamed the setting, Trigger vibration directly to Vibration mode and made it a pop-up option. Setting this to Use haptic feedback interface will accomplish the same thing. Basically it makes for a tighter haptic feedback on key press (similar to Gboard), instead of the mushy default setting.

        Also, I should have mentioned that both word suggestion and inline auto-correction are expected in v0.4. Most folks will find the lack of these two features intolerable in the meantime.

          mythodical ah-got it (wasn't scrolling down far enough). I've mimicked those settings - onward and upward!