• GeneralSolved

  • GBoard - Voice Typing - Incognito Mode Keyboard Request Issue

In an effort to be as private as possible along with using the benefits of modern technology, there can be instances where the stars don't quite align.

I've chosen to use GBoard with network permissions disabled, and Faster Voice Typing enabled. This allows me to use speech recognition and a keyboard that is very smooth overall, without sending telemetry back to Google.

I also use several privacy focused apps. For example I use Molly and Firefox Focus.

These two apps appear to request 'incognito mode' from GBoard. This request seems to be the cause of Voice Typing not working.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1213352

Firefox Focus requests the incognito mode for the GBoard (Google Keyboard). The incognito mode for that keyboard disables voice typing. Firefox Focus does not get to control what features the keyboard displays.

Question: I'm not suggesting this is a GrapheneOS issue, but since there are likely others here with a similar setup I was curious if you know of a work around for apps configured this way to use Voice Typing?

I don't know of any settings in Molly, FF Focus or GBoard which can be modified to allow Voice Typing to work when incognito mode is requested of GBoard.

PS - All use is within the Owner Profile. I also use Signal and there are no Voice Typing issues with GBoard there.

Do you have Speech services by Google installed?

    pappee I have GSF and Google Play Store as outlined by GrapheneOS. I then installed Gboard, enabled Voice Typing and then Faster Voice Typing. Once that process was complete I disabled Network connections for Gboard.

    I haven't heard of 'Speech Services' before. Could you point me in the right direction to research?

        @pappee It seems you were referring to this 'app' from google.

        https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.tts

        While it does appear to be a speech to text app, I don't see anything added functionally over GBoards included Voice Typing. I don't see how it would solve the 'incognito mode' request from some apps to Gboard. Maybe you can elaborate on it some? Thanks

        Any other ideas, work arounds or experiences from the group? Thanks

          johnsmith
          Speech Services is required for voice input.

          Faster voice typing does not work well on GraphensOS as far as I know.
          When you want to use voice typing, you need to switch from Gboard to Google Voice Typing.
          This works with incognito mode

          Here are the steps.
          (I wrote this quickly, so please let me know if anything is unclear)

          1. Install Speech Services by Google using Aurora Store.
          2. Download the voice data
            (Settings→System→Language & Input→Gear icon next to "Voice input"→Add a language)
            (After downloading, turn off network permissions of the speech service)
          3. Activate Google Voice Typing from the keyboard settings(Settings→System→Language & Input→On-Screen Keyboard).
          4. When using voice typing, switch from Gboard to Google Voice Typing.

              I wrote in a hurry, so my explanation above was not clear.
              Sorry.

              In other words, you cannot use Gboard voice typing in incognito mode.
              Instead, Google voice typing can be used in incognito mode.
              You can use Google voice typing by installing Speech Services by Google.

              pappee This walk through works for apps which request incognito mode from Gboard.

              It would be nice if Gboard would work for this, but this solution is only 1 extra click, and does the trick.

              Thank you very much for solving this problem for me!

                pappee

                Speech Services is required for voice input.

                Tangential to the OP but GBoard works for me with only Microphone perms and I have not installed GSF, Speech Services app, or Play Store.

                    rambleon

                    Great, thanks for letting me know.
                    I just tried and it seems to work without speech service (for some languages?) as you mentioned.
                    (It doesn't seem to work in incognito mode, though.)
                    Thanks

                        rambleon pappee

                        Can confirm that GBoard Voice Typing working without Google Speech Services.

                        I believe that Google Speech Services (or analternative app) is needed for text-to-speech (TTS).

                            Just to clarify what the original concern was...

                            Using Gboard with Voice Typing enabled, MOST apps allow for voice typing to work just fine.

                            Some apps request 'incognito mode' from the keyboard. When this happens and Gboard is your default keyboard, Voice Typing does not work and a message displays at bottom of screen

                            Voice typing is disable in incognito mode

                            Using the solution @pappee suggested, we can access Speech Services, which is a voice only keyboard that converts speech to text. Once downloaded it works with no network permissions.

                            Example:

                            Open Vanadium Browser > Open Regular Tab > Using Gboard will allow voice typing

                            Open Vanadium Browser > Open Incognito Tab > Gboard will not allow voice typing BUT changing Keyboard to Google Voice Typing (after Speech Services installed) allows for Voice Typing.

                            5 months later

                            • [deleted]

                            • Post #14

                            johnsmith I have GSF and Google Play Store as outlined by GrapheneOS. I then installed Gboard, enabled Voice Typing and then Faster Voice Typing. Once that process was complete I disabled Network connections for Gboard.

                            I don't see any option of Faster Voice Typing in Voice Typing option. I am using Pixel 6a.

                            Could you help in finding that option?

                            The Voice typing toggle is on and there is no other option in that section.

                              Why not use the default and incredible, privacy protecting AOSP keyboard, and install Sayboard? It makes the little microphone on the AOSP keyboard work and gives you voice typing. It also works in incognito modes!

                              Its not quite the same as gboard's voice typing (no punctuation), which is a hassle at first, but when you get used to it its no problem! You just voice type in bursts, and switch back to the keyboard to add in commas and periods yourself instead of saying "period".

                              Try it out! I was a LONG time gboard user myself, for the voice typing and the suggestions, but with the AOSP keyboard you just add words to the dictionary to make your own suggestions. Its my favorite keyboard now. I got away from gboard because even without network permissions, its still a glorified keylogger, and to me that's unacceptable. This is kinda a out of left field suggestion to your problem, but may be exactly the thing that gets you away from one more Google app, and onto a more open source, and privacy protecting path in addition to solving your problem!

                                • [deleted]

                                • Post #16

                                Tryptamine Why not use the default and incredible, privacy protecting AOSP keyboard

                                It's not that incredible as per OS developers:

                                Sticking with outdated code that's not being maintained is definitely not good for security, especially since it has a bunch of code unnecessarily written in C++ rather than Kotlin/Java.

                                We don't want to have all this C++ code exposed as attack surface to apps from the keyboard. Nearly all the relevant added features such as glide typing don't expose attack surface in any meaningful way. Attack surface would be reduced by getting rid of C++ code and instead having almost entirely Kotlin/Java code that's memory and type safe.

                                    Orphee it's awesome, isn't it? Open source, and works on your phone all locally! No cloud involved, privacy friendly!

                                      [deleted] hmm... Good point! This app may need recoding, but still... As an app that gives voice typing on your phone and runs locally, I'd say it's better for privacy than gboard. Maybe your compromising security a bit then though due to outdated code... That could probably be said of many apps though, but that's no excuse.