Open Source @lemmy.ml JackAttack @lemmy.dbzer0.com 3w ago

Open Source Android Keyboard

I saw a post on reddit asking for open source android keyboards in recent years since a lot of the posts were older. One user recommended "Futo Keyboard".

To be clear, I'm not affiliated with them but I've been trying them based on that reddit response and I just wanted to share here in case anyone else has been looking.

In short, this keyboard is about as close to awesome as you can get so far. Features I like:

Feels like GBOARD
Works fully offline
Gesture typing (about 75% as accurate as GBoard)
Built in offline speech to text (no third party engine needed to download

I've tried other options like heliboard and openboard and they are great too, but I think so far this has been the best I've tried and I wanted to recommend it on here in case anyone else is looking. Feel free to share any other setups or recommendations below!

EDIT: it was pointed out that it is source-available and not open source. Apologize for my initial assumption. The source and license can be viewed here: Futo Keyboard. It is fully open for non-commercial use. Anything commercial can have restrictions.

33 comments

I've been using Heliboard for quite a bit now. its very nice and simple. I'm not sure how it would do multiple languages however, as I've not tried it.

i absolutely recommend it though. great little keyboard.
- I'm not sure how it would do multiple languages however, as I've not tried it.
  
  As someone who types the majority of my thoughts in Frenglish, Heliboard is the only FOSS keyboard I've found that would remotely accommodate that while still having useful autocorrect.
  
  I speak three languages (all of them badly), and I agree, I just have to long press space and select the language I'm typing in if I want correction or suggestions.
- I've tried it. I like that they're carrying the torch of OpenBoard, but I don't like that swipe typing requires manually downloading a third party library.
- I love that Heliboard is so simple, it feels like a properly developed keyboard without poorly implemented gimmicks.
  
  Also regarding language, I have a great time being able to swap between English and (my very poor) Russian.
- Awesome suggestion. Just started using this (was on Swiftkey) and it's awesome, especially after adding in the library for glide typing.
  
  i am also a swiftkey refugee. lol. loving it so far.
I have to point out that Futo is not open source, it's source available, but yes it's pretty good and I've been using it for a couple months.
- Ah noted. Thanks for clarifying that. I found the source: Futo Keyboard and read the license. Sure enough it is open but restricted by commercial use. As long as it's not for commercial use, there is no restrictions on using the source.
  
  There's also clauses about revoking your license if you try to sue them, and how you need to still include the system to pay them in your modified version.
I've started using Thumb-Key recently. I'm still very slow on it, but it is interesting, so I'm trying to give it a fair shake.
I've been dailying the keyboard for a solid 4mths at this point.

As someone who types in more than one language, sometimes even using the English script to type, it's mildly annoying in the autocorrect. But it's actually really great for English typing atm. Other languages, I'm still looking forward to trying.

I did switch to an S23 last week and the Samsung Keyboard is so good that I haven't been able to switch back to FUTO as of yet.
- My only gripe with the Samsung keyboard is that their only alternative distribution is Dvorak, and by now I'm 100% a colemak user even on touch screens. So I use open board with swipe typing.
  
  I see. I was brought up on QWERTY so I have never actually tried to change the keyboard type.
- Thanks for the input. I sometimes use another language but it's rare so I haven't been able to try to on here. However I agree. While not perfect, the autocorrect and text prediction for English is quite good! Ive been always going back to gboard but hoping this one is good enough to stay on. Ill update this post as I use it longer.
  
  While Gboard has better autocorrect, FUTO's gestures and automatic punctuations became muscle memory in a way that made it difficult to get back to.
Ive been jumping to and from Futo keyboard and Heliboard.

Futo has swipe typing which is nice in a pinch, yet I prefer Heliboard almost entirely. However, I also really really like Futo's voice typing which ether comes bundled with Futo keyboard or you can install it separately to use with other keyboards, yet when I do this. Google voice typing keeps turning itself back on repalcing Futo voice. So I'm a bit stuck between these two currently.
- Heliboard can have swipe typing. It relies on a closed source library though, so...
  
  https://github.com/Helium314/HeliBoard?tab=readme-ov-file#features
  
  Glide typing (only with closed source library ☹️)
  
  library not included in the app, as there is no compatible open source library available
  
  can be extracted from GApps packages ("swypelibs"), or downloaded here (click on the file and then "raw" or the tiny download button)
Ok done a bit the reverse as many here: came from Heliboard and tested out FUTO (thanks to this post and some others telling it was great). And indeed, it works pretty well, better than Heliboard, especially in English (~40% of my use on Android - I'm French native speaker so most messaging is in French and I use English for some search, lemmy,...). So that's say in French, futo is not as good as in English (suggestions are often less accurate than in English) but it's still better than Heliboard. The swipe works better too (and doesn't require an external (proprietary) library). The only drawbacks I see until now is the limitation to 3 suggestions in the suggestions bar, with Heliboard there was a 3 dot menu giving more suggestions and the lack of spellchecker.
I used AnySoft Keyboard until someone recommended Futo here on Lemmy. It's been my daily driver for a couple of months now and I have to agree: It's the best Open Source keyboard around, even if it's technically still in alpha. It's ridiculously good, even with languages other than English. It will nail German 20-character compound words first try and I haven't seen any other keyboard do it this well.
- Futo is not open source. Read its license.
  
  Futo is open source. It's not FOSS though.
- I've tried that as well. I've pretty much gone through all open source recommendations and was suprised to just now hear about this one. Any issues you've ran into?
  
  The positive aspects are that it's highly customizable and supports a large number of language addons. The downside is that development is pretty much dead, the swipe feature not being very accurate and the autocorrect only working in English. There's also a large amount of inconveniences and minor bugs that made it tedious to use in comparison to Futo.
I'd add that gesture typing accuracy may be dependant on hardware/os customization/maybe finger size? Gboard, annoyingly, works really well; however, futo is unusable for me unless I want to give up swiping to type.
I'm currently using it as my daily driver (and typing this reply using it) , it's great but +100MB of size for a keyboard is.... unfavorable to me
I need one with JP IME support
Are there any good recs for iOS?
I'm daily driving florisboard. Was impressed that it even had a kurdish layout.

33 comments