Secure keyboard that lets you easily switch between 6+ different languages

gvprtskvni

Is there a secure keyboard that lets you easily switch between 6+ different input languages and includes Chinese and Japanese? None of the recommended open source keyboards I've found has all of the features I need. Is it safe to use Google Gboard if you don't allow it network access? Or are there any other options?

Lilac6044

gvprtskvni I have no recommendation, however, I am impressed that you need to regularly use 6 languages.

mmobder

gvprtskvni
out of curiosity, have you tried https://keyboard.futo.org/ Futo? do you recall what features does it miss from what you need?

Delaney

gvprtskvni Is it safe to use Google Gboard if you don't allow it network access?

I consider it to be an acceptable compromise if multi-language support is your main concern. It is what I do as well.

GrapheneOS

gvprtskvni You can use multiple keyboards and switch between languages through them via the OS provided language switcher interface. Does it really need to be one keyboard?

gvprtskvni

Lilac6044 lmao I'm not fluent in that many languages, but I'm a huge linguistics nerd and like to be able to type in different writing systems, so I usually have at least a chinese, japanese, korean, russian, greek keyboard in addition to my native language.

In general, would it be a security risk to use an app like Gboard on Graphene if you turn off the internet connection for it?

SgtSurehand

gvprtskvni if you are getting your GBoard from Play Store, what security risk should there be? I think what you are concerned about is privacy implications of its use.

gvprtskvni

SgtSurehand that's what I meant, yes

gvprtskvni

mmobder it looks nice, but it doesn't seem to support chinese and japanese by default, or am I just blind? Is there an add-on to download?

mmobder

gvprtskvni
No, you're right. I've seen Japanese in their voice recognition pack, thus thought it's supported for text. Wrong. It's in long-term plans only, as of https://github.com/futo-org/android-keyboard/issues/710
Chinese, probably, the same

gvprtskvni

Delaney I mean, it should be fine right? Surely it can't steal your data if it can't even connect to the internet?

011100100110000101101101

FlorisBoard https://github.com/florisboard/florisboard has both Chinese(Cangjie, Boshiamy, Zhengma) & Japanese and you can easily switch with 1 button

Onlyfun

011100100110000101101101 this one, has its own clipboard aside from system's.

dhhdjbd

gvprtskvni

this is probably relevant

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/22700-is-removing-network-permission-safe-enough

i think i have seen other gboard specific threads aswell

Basically what this comes down to is, if you think google will go to extreme lengths to spy on user or not. While it is technological possible i dont think it is likely. (even after this stunt by meta)
(and as far as i am aware, even meta only did use the insta and facebook apps for this, while sparing whatsapp)

gvprtskvni

dhhdjbd I see. Whether it's likely they would use it or not, I really wish I didn't have to end up giving Google a backdoor into my system anyway after going to such lengths to throw them out. That's the whole reason I wanted to switch to Graphene.

Sucks that there doesn't seem to be a better option. But I guess that's on me for having weird preferences.

Grapi

GrapheneOS

The provided keyboard in GrapheneOS is just crazy if you need more languages, especially if you have also voice input keyboards like SayBoard.

All this keyboards are switched after each other mixed up normal keyboards with voice keyboards (which was not the case in earlier versions), then also very often in unexpected sequence. This is just crazy.

A good keyboard should have a possibility to select, let's say 2 active languages for easy toggling, and another languages with extra toggling. A good keyboard should let you to group keyboards as you want, etc. etc.

I have always a pain if I need to use a multiple language input in GrapheneOS, which is a normal use case by many Europeans and young people.

gvprtskvni

GrapheneOS Yes, it would be extremely inconvenient to have to go into settings every time I need to switch language. I don't use any keyboard (except for my native language ofc) for an extended period of time. Only to, for instance, look up a word in another writing system on Wiktionary, or when editing an article. If I need to go through menus every time I want to perform such minor tasks, I might as well open an online keyboard in the browser and copy-paste.

Or say that I'm making bilingual flashcards when studying a language. Then I'd have to constantly open settings to switch between the two languages.

jacksmith

gvprtskvni Don't you have the keyboard switcher button placed on the bottom right? It's a globe icon. You can click for quick switches or hold and select specific keyboard apps from the list.

gvprtskvni

I found an option that is is almost perfect: Fcitx5! They have all the Asian languages I want, however conversely not a single Western language except English. I can type my native language without too much effort using the pop-up diacritics selector, but I guess I'll have to give up on Cyrillic and Greek for now.

gvprtskvni

jacksmith Your right, I'm stupid lmao 🤦. That actually fixes everything. Sorry, I'm a noob.

GrapheneOS

gvprtskvni That's the language switcher interface we were referring to.

gvprtskvni

GrapheneOS Yes, thank you. I misunderstood.