• General
  • Which keyboard is most likely to replace the AOSP keyboard on GrapheneOS?

[deleted]

I'm wondering the same, I like to use my phone for language learning so I need the keyboard to support multiple languages and also voice to text, and I do not want to be sending keystrokes to google or anyone else.

    • [deleted]

    • Edited

    rellhom Yea, I have those same Questions. And for example about the privacy that the Keyboard collects what I type.

    Have the maintainers of GrapheneOS considered replacing the AOSP keyboard with FUTO keyboard? FUTO is the best keyboard I've tried and I've tried them all, including FlorisBoard, Fossify Keyboard and HeliBoard. The text prediction is VERY good, almost on par, if not as good as GBoard.

    What is wrong with FUTO keyboard? It's open source and very privacy friendly.

      rkeenan I don't know if there might be licensing issues. FUTO is not open source; it's source available with an according license.

        • [deleted]

        • Edited

        FlorisBoard +1

        splattergames

        What does that mean? The source code is on github. What does the license mean?

        • de0u replied to this.

          rkeenan The source code is on github. What does the license mean?

          "Open Source" does not mean the same thing as "the source is on GitHub".

          The current FUTO keyboard license is here. It is different from licenses recognized as "open source" by the OSI because it forbids people from doing things that are allowed by the OSI-approved "open source" licenses.

          The current FUTO license isn't necessarily bad in an absolute sense. But it is very possible that the GrapheneOS developers won't accept it.

            • [deleted]

            rellhom I installed FlorisBoard and I loved it! It don't needs Internet and it don't learn what you type. It has incognito mode which I really like. And it feels better. I don't know how private the voice to text is but yea, I would recommend it, more than AOSP Keyboard. But if your on GrapheneOS you could keep the Keyboard too, since you could turn the Internet for that off.

            • Edited

            Hehels Had some good experience with Heliboard myself. I've managed to recreate all Gboard functions in it including a multilanguage keyboard with prediction, swipetyping and voicetyping. Plus it works with FUTO voice input while Gboard doesn't. The default settings on Heliboard are kinda crap though. It looks like AOSP keyboard out of the box.
            For a Gboard-like experience:

            • enable key borders
            • set size to 120%
            • set colors to dynamic
            • set style to rounded (or leave at material, up to you)
            • add number row
            • turn off key hints
            • enable vibrate on keypress
            • enable autospace after punctuation
            • enable always show suggestions (fixes them not showing in some apps)
            • for multilanguage typing add mulingual typing to languages
            • add language switch key (if using multi-language)
            • enable add words to personal dictionary
            • download and add gesture typing library in advanced settings
              This will give very similar experience to Gboard. Swipe typing on par with Gboard. Dictionary is good for english and kinda lacking in my own language but it learns new words automatically so keeps getting better.

              Byku

              wish this forum had a bookmarking feature, great post

              de0u
              I've always subscribed to the GNU definition of FOSS.

              (0) to run the program, (1) to study and change the program in source code form, (2) to redistribute exact copies, and (3) to distribute modified versions.

              https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

              And this license tracks. The limitation being that you can't take the software then sell it (or remove their licensing or copyright stuff)

              • de0u replied to this.

                billbutter I've always subscribed to the GNU definition of FOSS.

                If FUTO wished to subscribe to that definition, they could use a GPL license. But the current FUTO license forbids others from doing what FUTO is doing.

                As I understand it, the FUTO keyboard is a fork of an earlier project, which FUTO is investing in and wants to be paid for. That is fine, but their license forbids others from forking it, investing in it, and shifting any payment stream their way.

                What if FUTO as a company shuts down? Eventually most companies do. Or what if they decide to end development of this one program, or sell it? Companies do that, too.

                When SimpleMobileTools was sold and changed direction, the code was forked as Fossify. If FUTO were to change radically (as sometimes happens with companies, and non-company organizations), the software can't just be forked by a different organization that wishes to continue the previous model.

                Regardless of whether FUTO's license model is a good one, it genuinely isn't the same as GPL or MIT or Apache, which are symmetrical. The FUTO license restricts some benefits to FUTO.

                7 days later

                Byku

                Thanks for this, one question for you. Where do you adjust the size to 120%? I see a setting for keyboard height scale and bottom padding scale in the appearance settings but not sure if this is what you're talking about...

                • Byku replied to this.