Using Google Keyboard privately

Landed8507

I use swype. I have tried floris board, swift key, anysoftkeyboard, etc.
Unfortunately, there is a significant difference between them and Gboard.
I am considering downloading Gboard from Aurora store and turning off all permissions (network, etc) so nothing can get back to Google.
Would like help me stay private or am I missing something?

MetropleX

Landed8507 what hishizuru said, you can use pretty much any IME with network permission revoked to maintain privacy.

I'll mark this resolved.

hishizuru

I'm using the same setup (Gboard with no permissions) and it works flawlessly. I have 0 Bytes send (if the statistic is correct) and I don't think there is any way for them communicate. But I also don't have Play Services installed in the same user profile (this would be my only guess)

spiral

MetropleX So, using Gboard, with network permissions revoked, on a profile with play services enabled, is reasonably private?

MetropleX

spiral as reasonably private as can be expected yes.

Just need to understand that if your Play Services have Network it is theoretically possible for GBoard to use IPC (inter process communication) to use it's network access. However this must be by mutual consent.

spiral

MetropleX so, if I revoked network permissions for Google Play Services, does that break Google Play Services? I have network permissions denied for Gboard but that obviously doesn't stop IPC

digital

MetropleX Ok so I understoood correctly, the most private way to use Gboard is with Network permission OFF and without sandboxed Play Services as the two could communicate. I will just Gboard on a profile without Google Sandboxing stuff and I will be good to go.

MetropleX

spiral it can do, having tested GBoard myself there doesn't appear to be a real issue with IPC as every function in the settings appears to respect the Network permission state and reports back that it can't connect to Googles servers.

My caution was more theoretical than practical as far as I can observe.

krayon

For those having issues, to get GBoard and Google Camera working, I had to ensure that I installed all the Google Play components from Apps first, THEN install GBoard and Google Camera. Once this was done, I removed the Google Play components once again. GBoard and Google Camera now continue to work. Doing it the other way around (GBoard first) resulted only in constant crashes.

Eirikr70

krayon Sorry you had this experience : I have installed GBoard on a profile that has never seen Google Play and it is my default keyboard since months.

applesbana

krayon

If you do this, do updates continue to come through for these two apps?

digital

Anyway, the general advice is to have Google Camera or Gboard installed on a profile without any of the 3 google apps. And network disabled of course. That's the only way they can't trasmit any data over internet, as far as I understand.