Google disabled voice typing on gboard without network access.

Stelia

So you used to be able to get voice typing on gboard* to work with these workarounds:

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/20534-advice-for-using-voice-to-text-on-gboard-google-keyboard
https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/19055-gboard-voice-input-unavailable-right-now

But now it would appear that google has specifically disabled voice typing in gboard if it has had its network access disabled. When I tap the microphone after disabling network access I get the "Voice input unavailable right now" message but when I enable networking and turn off Wi-Fi and data it works just fine.

Firstly is anyone else experiencing this/can reproduce it?
Secondly what can be done? The hacky thing to do might be to make it look like I have data turned off when in actuality I have disabled gboard's network access. I have no idea how this could be done but I would love suggestions!

*I need swipe text. Making swipe text work well is a hard problem. Google and Apple have spent many millions of dollars making it work. I haven't found any open source keyboards that are any good at swipe text so I, very begrudgingly, use gboard.

MetropleX

Stelia *I need swipe text. Making swipe text work well is a hard problem. Google and Apple have spent many millions of dollars making it work. I haven't found any open source keyboards that are any good at swipe text so I, very begrudgingly, use gboard.

Having tried Florisboard? While their standard typing model autocorrect/predictions have been slow, their swipe typing has been pretty good for me.

NEQA

Stelia Firstly is anyone else experiencing this/can reproduce it?

Yes.

Stelia Secondly what can be done?

Honestly, probably nothing. If the app now demands an internet connection – or perhaps requires an internet connection because it needs to fetch data from a server – in order for a feature to work, I can't see how it would be possible to circumvent that requirement. I know that's not the answer you hoped for.

I find that the app Transcribro, obtainable from Accrescent, does a good job on transcribing as long as I speak clearly into the microphone. Perhaps give that a try. Note that only English is supported.

And ditto on Gboard's swipe feature being excellent. The mentioned Florisboard doesn't have predictive text support yet, but I'm hopeful that it'll become a usable alternative to Gboard in the future. I donated a small amount to the developer and would encourage others to donate as well.

MetropleX

NEQA I find that the app Transcribro, obtainable from Accrescent, does a good job on transcribing as long as I speak clearly into the microphone. Perhaps give that a try. Note that only English is supported.

Can confirm as this is what I also use.

Stelia

NEQA That's the thing, it doesn't need network access as demonstrated by my experiment above when I turned off Wi-Fi and data. it still worked. it's just when it knows that you have revoked its network access that it stops working. it's literally just Google demanding that you allow it to phone home.

It seems like it wouldn't be terribly difficult to have the OS fake/lie to gboard. To make it seem like you are out of service or that airplane mode is turned on when in actuality you have permanently disabled its network access. But that would probably require being a programmer which I am not.

I currently use transcribro but switching back and forth between the keyboards is obnoxious particularly when I inevitably need to edit transcribrows mistakes, punctuation, etc.

MetropleX

Stelia this is weird as when the Network permission toggle is disabled, we pretend that the network is entirely down and give the appropriate errors.

NEQA

Stelia That's the thing, it doesn't need network access as demonstrated by my experiment above when I turned off Wi-Fi and data.

Oh, I somehow missed that part of your post. I should read more carefully. That is interesting though. I don't know why that would be the case, so I can only offer my speculations, which won't be helpful.

Stelia

MetropleX Very weird. I wonder if anybody else can reproduce this problem? I even tried turning off my sim card along with my Wi-Fi and gboard still worked as long as I didn't switch off its network access toggle.

n3t_admin

MetropleX this is weird as when the Network permission toggle is disabled, we pretend that the network is entirely down and give the appropriate errors.

Unless Google somehow started specific checks for GrapheneOS inside of their apps. In light of current developments surrounding Android, this would not surprise me at all.

NEQA

Stelia Very weird. I wonder if anybody else can reproduce this problem? I

Note that I have never used voice typing prior to doing the below.

When I do this:

Enable the Network permission for Gboard
Disable WiFi and cellular data
Press the microphone icon in the Gboard keyboard and allow microphone permission

I get the following popup toast: "Can't reach Google right now" and I can't transcribe.

When I then do this:

Disable the Network permission for Gboard
Disable WiFi and cellular data
Press the microphone icon in the Gboard keyboard

I get the following popup toast: "Voice input is not available right now" and I can't transcribe.

When I then do this:

Enable the Network permission for Gboard
Enable WiFi and cellular data
Press the microphone icon in the Gboard keyboard and allow microphone permission

Then I'm able to transcribe (unsurprisingly). When I then do this:

Disable the Network permission for Gboard
Disable WiFi and cellular data
Press the microphone icon in the Gboard keyboard and allow microphone permission

Then I'm still able to transcribe.

If I then do this:

Enable WiFi and cellular data

Then I'm still able to transcribe.

This is with Gboard version 15.8.4.793526320-release-arm64-v8a

The message "Can't reach Google right now" might indicate that Gboard attempts to fetch some data in order to enable or update voice typing. Perhaps updated voice data is not included with app updates, but rather fetched if the feature is used? That would be a way for Google to reduce the app download size from the Play Store. But that is speculation. Still, slightly interesting.

Stelia

NEQA thanks for testing! I get mostly the same results excerpt that last one. Even if I have done some voice typing (from recordings off the internet so they can't send my voice to Google) with networking enabled, as soon as I turn off network permissions it stops working. Sigh. I might just have to keep using transcribro.

Grapi

I am using SayBoard for the voice input. It does not require a network connection. You can download a language model for local use without network. SayBoard supports a lot of languages and works pretty good. You can customize some settings in the app.

Shendai

I use offline speech-to-text typing on gboard, and I confirm as of today its still working with network access disabled.

There is a separate issue that I've posted about some weeks ago:

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/24940-voice-to-text-keeps-requiring-a-reset

Basically, about once every week or two, this functionality stops working. I have to allow network access, then re-toggle the voice typing & offline voice typing toggles in gboard, wait for it to download the required files, then disable network access for gboard again.

It's a pain, but solvable, at least. I don't regularly update gboard anymore, so my version is at least a couple weeks+ old.

ron

Try FUTO Keyboard. Voice to text is done locally. https://keyboard.futo.org/#