4 ms·

If you haven't tried it, Google's GBoard is now on iOS and is quite good.

wlesieutre 9y ago
Thanks for the recommendation! It does seem good. Bummer that it has a giant search bar at the top of the keyboard, which is an enormous waste of space on an iPhone SE. If you don't give it full access, the same space is used to constantly beg for full access to turn on the search bar, and accidentally touching that will pull you out of your app over to the Gboard app, which gives you a button to open the Settings app. I can see why they do it. No way to serve ads to the keyboard, so searches are the only way to make money off of it. Shame they had to crap it up though, I'd have happily paid money for this keyboard, but I think I'll have to pass. In keeping with this thread, I'm not that into the idea of giving Google access to my keystrokes even if they pinky-swear to not use them. We're talking about the same company currently being sued for deliberately working around iOS's privacy protections: https://9to5mac.com/2017/11/30/google-safari-work-around-class-action-suit/ https://9to5mac.com/2017/11/30/google-safari-work-around-cla...
- vbernat 9y ago
  On Android, this search bar can be disabled. Maybe it's the same on iOS.
  - wlesieutre 9y ago
    Doesn't look like it. The "Search" section in their settings has options to disable Predictive search, enable Contacts search, turn on location access, Clear Gboard search history, or Reset Google Usage ID. No way to disable the whole bar. EDIT - the search prompt actually only pops up if you bump the G button at the left side, otherwise the bar is text predictions once you start typing. Maybe I'll give this a shot. Android version definitely lets you disable the G button. It's listed right next to the "Predictive search" setting, so I'm fairly sure this can not be disabled on iOS. https://www.ghacks.net/2016/12/19/remove-g-button-android-keyboard/ https://www.ghacks.net/2016/12/19/remove-g-button-android-ke...
jay_kyburz 9y ago
Haha, give all your info to Google and Apple at the same time.
- wlesieutre 9y ago
  Per all the discussion here, Google can't get your info unless you grant "full access" to the keyboard

Thanks for the recommendation! It does seem good. Bummer that it has a giant search bar at the top of the keyboard, which is an enormous waste of space on an iPhone SE. If you don't give it full access, the same space is used to constantly beg for full access to turn on the search bar, and accidentally touching that will pull you out of your app over to the Gboard app, which gives you a button to open the Settings app. I can see why they do it. No way to serve ads to the keyboard, so searches are the only way to make money off of it. Shame they had to crap it up though, I'd have happily paid money for this keyboard, but I think I'll have to pass. In keeping with this thread, I'm not that into the idea of giving Google access to my keystrokes even if they pinky-swear to not use them. We're talking about the same company currently being sued for deliberately working around iOS's privacy protections: https://9to5mac.com/2017/11/30/google-safari-work-around-class-action-suit/ https://9to5mac.com/2017/11/30/google-safari-work-around-cla...

vbernat 9y ago
On Android, this search bar can be disabled. Maybe it's the same on iOS.
- wlesieutre 9y ago
  Doesn't look like it. The "Search" section in their settings has options to disable Predictive search, enable Contacts search, turn on location access, Clear Gboard search history, or Reset Google Usage ID. No way to disable the whole bar. EDIT - the search prompt actually only pops up if you bump the G button at the left side, otherwise the bar is text predictions once you start typing. Maybe I'll give this a shot. Android version definitely lets you disable the G button. It's listed right next to the "Predictive search" setting, so I'm fairly sure this can not be disabled on iOS. https://www.ghacks.net/2016/12/19/remove-g-button-android-keyboard/ https://www.ghacks.net/2016/12/19/remove-g-button-android-ke...

jay_kyburz 9y ago

Haha, give all your info to Google and Apple at the same time.

wlesieutre 9y ago
Per all the discussion here, Google can't get your info unless you grant "full access" to the keyboard