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OpenBoard – FOSS Keyboard for Android which respects your privacy

ThePhysicist 6y ago
Great project. It's funny that we are at a point where even keyboard apps are spying on your personal and private data. Crazy.
- _trampeltier 6y ago
  Yes, a keyboard app just should not allowed to have a network connection, but yeah, a thing to dream in 2021.
  - aargh_aargh 6y ago
    As an Android user, not developer, I wanted to ask how are permissions on Android these days. Is "internet access" permission just granted for any app by default without asking the user? There were initiatives (probably 3rd party) for more granular permissions, but I haven't noticed this becoming common. I vaguely remember that Android started asking for some individual permissions not upon installation, but only when they were first used by the app, e.g. camera access. Why is this not the case for internet access? In a nutshell, how did permission granting in stock Android develop from say Android 3.x times? I understand that some keyboards want to provide suggestions using a dictionary they download online. Also, I used to use SwiftKey once which wanted to read all my mail to produce better suggestions. Is there even a good way to balance the benefits (features) and risks (uploading a key log if the app is sold/abandoned and taken over by an attacker)?
    - est31 6y ago
      > Is "internet access" permission just granted for any app by default without asking the user? IIRC it was changed because people complained that a lot of apps required that permission despite the functionality not needing it. E.g. calculator app or whatever. Turns out that you need this permission if you want to display ads. So Google just sided with the advertisers and removed the permission from the display. Generally, I believe that Google likes internet connected things because they as a company have better tools to capture online revenue streams vs offline ones.
      - darkwater 6y ago
        Even if I hate ads and I think one should be able to ban them forever on their devices, Android could just add an "Internet access" permission that only counts for Internet access required outside the Ads API, so they would keep their ads and users could be a bit safer on the "this app is snooping my data" side.
        aargh_aargh 6y ago
        I agree that it would be nice to separate the privileges if it were possible. I suspect that allowing internet access even in the form of ads opens the possibility for data exfiltration in principle. But I'm not familiar with the Android case at all.
        wizzwizz4 6y ago
        It allows for expensive, obvious data exfiltration. (Expensive in the sense that somebody else could take the data, unless you're the highest bidder for those categories – assuming Google Ads still shows ads with a bid of 0, which I'm not confident in.)
        kelchqvjpnfasjl 6y ago
        > outside the Ads API Presumably these Ad APIs would be for access to Google Ads. That would seem like an anti-trust issue.
        wongarsu 6y ago
        That would only work if they open up the Ads API to work with any ad network. Otherwise it would basically kill any competition in the Android Ad space, which would probably lead to EU and US regulators coming down hard on Google.
        bostonvaulter2 6y ago
        They could instead expand the permission system to group various ad api's so that each api is considered a distinct permission. Honestly would be good to do that in addition (i.e. separate from) the general internet permission.
    - fy20 6y ago
      Certain permissions (internet is one example) are granted when the app is installed, other permissions (e.g. access to photos) require the user to give access through a dialog prompt (and from Android 10(?) the user will be asked again every so often, rather than just once). All permissions an app can use are listed in the manifest file, and are displayed on Google Play.
    - netizen-9748 6y ago
      A good solution to this is using iptables to control what has access to which networks, rather than relying on the OS. AFWall+ is a nice front end for iptables and requires root. Netguard is another option that doesn't require root, but I'm not sure how that one works.
  - kevincox 6y ago
    I know I "shouldn't" but I use Google Keyboard. It is really compelling and has legitimate use cases for a network connection with the built in GIF search.
- est31 6y ago
  It's coming for the hardware keyboards as well. See comments in this thread: https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/95f7lw/das_keyboard_banning_users_from_the_5q_forums_for/ https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/95f7lw/das_keyboard_...
- Cthulhu_ 6y ago
  In theory, they keep your data private, combine it with the greater learnings of the world, and provide you with perfect autocomplete and autocorrect. In practice though, it just doesn't work. I got GBoard for a while because it has a bilingual keyboard, but the autocomplete suggestions often ended up being people's first names instead of common words (and not even the people I was talking to).
  - jfengel 6y ago
    I speak French much better with GBoard, because it spells better than I do. It also has a pretty good sense of grammar: it will often autocomplete the correct ending of a verb. (It feels like cheating to use it with Duolingo.) Of course I speak only simple French, and those are the cases where its primitive learning is most apt. When I speak English, its suggestions are less useful, because I use a much wider vocabulary and more sophisticated sentence structure.
StavrosK 6y ago
I would love it if we could get something like SwiftKey, but actively developed. Its predictions are magic, but lately it has been getting more and more buggy, suggesting words that don't exist, changing already-correct words to nonsense, and refusing to learn.
- philips 6y ago
  I am experiencing the same issues with GBoard: suggestions just getting worse and worse. I dug through the settings and haven’t seen anything obvious.
- popeathlete 6y ago
  Try AnySoftKeyboard. Works great and is FOSS.
  - przmk 6y ago
    In my experience, the predictions were atrocious and not very smart, at least in French. It also couldn't detect words that had personal pronouns or determiners with an apostrophe, I had to type the apostrophe manually which is a no-go for me. And it does not support having multiple languages at once which is incredibly inconvenient when you frequently have to switch between 4 languages when typing and when you often mix some of them. But if you type without the autocorrect and the predictions, it can be great, I guess.
    - cerved 6y ago
      this. gboard is the only solution I've used that's decent at multilingual typing it still gets confused when you mix languages but in general it's ok
  - StavrosK 6y ago
    This looks interesting so far, thank you.
- Semaphor 6y ago
  Try deleting cache and data (backup your personal dictionary first). As with everything smart that learns (obviously YMMV, but that is my experience) it gets worse over time. Back when I used SwiftKey I deleted everything once a month to have a decent experience.
older 6y ago
Is it better than Hacker's Keyboard? https://github.com/klausw/hackerskeyboard https://github.com/klausw/hackerskeyboard
- SftwreEngnr 6y ago
  Who cares?
- lucb1e 6y ago
  It takes very little to be better than Hacker's Keyboard. For me suggestions are broken altogether, but if you randomly get them to work and type "Ecample" it will not suggest anything because there are no words with that prefix. It also doesn't look at the previous word to bias which are likely next words (either in general or combined with the characters already typed). It's the dumbest keyboard ever, which is very nice on virtual terminals (hence it being a hacker's keyboard and my having it installed), but it's not useful as a general purpose keyboard.
- stiray 6y ago
  For me hackers keyboard is still far best keyboard found, the only thing that annoys me is that it has no smileys button, for everything else it fits great. I use ssh a lot and all the suggestions and other bells and whistles of other keyboards are more annoyance than anything else, but i need access to all the keys that normal keyboard has. And '/', tab and enter must be accessible all the time this is absolutely primary requirement for me to use any keyboard.
  - hyperpallium2 6y ago
    Space doesn't repeat, and will not fix.
    - stiray 6y ago
      You dont need to, I got myself cosmo communicator[1] and running linux (but still waiting for them to support camera to stop using the android phone completely). I am sick of androoogle ecosystem and touch keyboards :) [1]https://store.planetcom.co.uk/products/cosmo-communicator https://store.planetcom.co.uk/products/cosmo-communicator
Kinrany 6y ago
I use Fleksy, its predictions and gesture controls are fantastic. Is there an open keyboard that does the same?
- Kinrany 6y ago
  Yep, the one in the title
2Gkashmiri 6y ago
How is this different from AnySoftKeyboard ? I have been using that for a long time now
lcnmrn 6y ago
Simple Keyboard is both on F-Droid and Play Store. https://github.com/rkkr/simple-keyboard https://github.com/rkkr/simple-keyboard
- fogihujy 6y ago
  I'll add a vote for Simple Keyboard. It's lightweight, fast, and does exactly what it says on the package.
- betamike 6y ago
  Just a note for anyone checking it out, Simple Keyboard doesn't support spellcheck (which is why I use OpenBoard instead).
MayeulC 6y ago
I use AnysoftKeyboard (on F-Droid) [1]. I's pretty good, but has issues with the French apostrophe, that's often used to combine words. It also has multiple keyboard layouts, of which "terminal" compares favorably to hacker's keyboard. I like that it is configurable, and has a lot of text editing tools when swiping space up. I admit I lost some typing speed when I switched from the alternatives, but I'm happier with it. [1] https://anysoftkeyboard.github.io/ https://anysoftkeyboard.github.io/
- circularfoyers 6y ago
  I don't see any reason why someone would use OpenBoard over AnySoftKeyboard. It would of been nice if there was an explanation of what differentiated it. If someone just wanted a different looking keyboard they could just have created a new theme for AnySoftKeyboard. AnySoftKeyboard also is the only open source keyboard for Android that has gesture typing. Which is something I grew to love from when I used Gboard.
  - pmontra 6y ago
    Swyping didn't work reliably when I tried one year ago, so I switched back to one of the keyboards of my phone (SwiftKey because I find it slightly better than Samsung's one.) Did they improve it in the last releases?
    - JeremyNT 6y ago
      For me, it just doesn't do the job. I love ASK but this feature isn't competitive with the closed source alternatives. Alas, I wish it were. This is all that's missing IMO.
      - bestouff 6y ago
        Can't upvote this enough.
    - ad404b8a372f2b9 6y ago
      There is a pull request open which improves the algorithm massively. Author couldn't finish it because of health issues sadly. I've installed it on my phone and it works great but I had to update some parameters in the code so it'd work.
llarsson 6y ago
No gesture typing, unfortunately. I miss that feature from GBoard, whenever I try an open source one. Yes, ASK has it, but it is not at all smart about figuring out what word I mean if I happen to not start my gesture on the exactly right starting letter.
- lucb1e 6y ago
  No gesture typing in 2011, ahem, 2021 is not even worth considering to me. I'm using a closed source keyboard because it just works better than all the open stuff (at least when I last tried various keyboard in ~2018), but have it firewalled off completely in AfWall+. That means no updates, though it learns new words like COVID-19 well enough from me, but also no data leaking (I'd happily contribute typing stats if it were some non-profit handling my data).
  - solarkraft 6y ago
    Which one do you use?
    - lucb1e 6y ago
      Swiftkey is what I found to work the best. It puts symbols on keys (e.g. long press m to make /), can make symbols like × by long-pressing *, can have a number row above the keyboard, and the predictions are some of the best as far as I've been able to tell. I also don't mistrust Microsoft that much, since they don't have a data-oriented profit model, so even if the firewall is slow to boot up and lets it upload a backlog, even then it should be okayish. I made the mistake of updating it once, though, and got an uglier design and now need to press two buttons to get into incognito mode rather than just one. Lesson learned: never change a nice system if it's fully firewalled and isolated... or at least have a planned retreat.
- xthetrfd 6y ago
  You can use the swipe functionality of the gboard even with the open source android keyboard provided you are rooted. It's just a library file that you have to install.
przmk 6y ago
Fun fact, one of my banking app prevents me from launching it if I do not use a "certified" keyboard app. I had bad luck with any keyboard from F-Droid.
- turminal 6y ago
  Banking apps are such a disgrace. Full of weird ideas about what is ok and what is not and which data and whatnot they need or else they won't run and in the end it doesn't help at all.
  - fogihujy 6y ago
    My bank recognizes the risk that third-party keyboard apps pose, and has their own keypad in their authentication app. The same bank has a maximum password length of 8 characters, and they'll truncate longer passwords without informing the user -- set the password to "correct horse battery staple" and you'll be able to log in with "correct ". When I pointed it out they recommended setting a shorter password.
- Cthulhu_ 6y ago
  And for good reason. It's the operating system that should offer a 'certified secure' keyboard if the app requests it though. A bit like Windows' account password entry screen that is sandboxed from the rest of the OS (if I understood it correctly).
  - przmk 6y ago
    In this case, the app has its own keypad when logging in so I'm not sure what the added value is security-wise. I'm just not able to launch the app while an F-Droid keyboard is set as default which is just annoying. There's many keyboards on the Play Store that I wouldn't trust to install and use.
- syncbehind 6y ago
  Honestly at this point why even bother with banking apps? I've found that most of my banking needs can be done via their mobile-webpages.
vdddv 6y ago
Does that mean that the "default" keyboard on Android does not respect my privacy? As in, what does it do? Should I be worried about entering username, passwords etc from my Android device?
- lucb1e 6y ago
  The "default" keyboard differs from device to device. Most devices have a closed source keyboard either from Google (gboard) or from Microsoft (swiftkey). If I remember correctly, both send subsets of what you type to the mothership and pinky swear to only use it for product improvement and guard your data with their lives.
  - Bellamy 6y ago
    So Xiaomi, Google, Samsung etc. knows everything we write and erase? I getting really paranoid...
    - izacus 6y ago
      Google claims to use differential privacy / federated learning for their GBoard: https://ai.googleblog.com/2020/05/federated-analytics-collaborative-data.html https://ai.googleblog.com/2020/05/federated-analytics-collab... No idea about others.
    - lucb1e 6y ago
      I wouldn't put it that strongly.
- pedrogpimenta 6y ago
  "Default" may mean different things. A Samsung phone has a Samsung keyboard as the default keyboard, while a Pixel would have Gboard (I guess). I assume they send every word you type to their servers, but I also assume it's encrypted in transport, so it would be somewhat safe? It's a very very difficult struggle.
sbt567 6y ago
I'm using FlorisBoard which is amazing!. It's just recently developed and many features still WIP. But excited to see the future!
tumblewit 6y ago
As a very long term iOS user, when I saw this headline my first reaction was why is keyboard privacy even a thing i've never even bothered changing the keyboard of iOS and would certainly be prompted for any suspicious activity like mic or camera and would instantly reject it if i ever installed one. But this is very complicated on Android. I once maintained an Android phone for my Dad and the permissions prompt on that are so overwhelming that it's very easy to get people into 'accepting all' and I feel like this is the idea behind the design by Google. One shouldn't be worried about a keyboard spying about you and should be as easy as flip of a switch in settings from not allowing it but it's a lot more complicated than that on Android.
- sepnax 6y ago
  I don't know if this post was supposed to be funny, but it certainly made me laugh.
- Kelamir 6y ago
  > and should be as easy as flip of a switch in settings from not allowing it but it's a lot more complicated than that on Android. One can just check the permissions of a keyboard to see if it includes internet access. If it does, don't use it.
- izacus 6y ago
  Well, iOS uses the same differential ML approach for their keyboard suggestion learning just like Google's GBoard does. So you kinda have the same concern there.
thelittleone 6y ago
This clean layout looks great. I've moved from IOS to Android 6 months ago and have been frustrated by a high % of intended alpha char keystrokes ending up as stickers culminating recently in me sending "I miss you" sticker to my boss.
dingaling 6y ago
Still using the inverted-triangle row arrangement, though. If we're stuck with on-screen keyboards, please at least maximise use of horizontal space to make each 'key' as wide as possible. There's no need to copy the century-old typewriter convention. I have a compact Cherry server-rack physical keyboard with the keys arranged in a grid and it's perfectly usable.
Happpy 6y ago
I'm using it with a colemak layout. The only thing I'm missing is multi language predictions. Now I have to switch(long press space) layouts each time I need another language. I regularly use the swipe spacebar and swipe backspace. I never use speech or swiping
pjmlp 6y ago
I fail to see why the use of native code. If it is to respect privacy, it should also not have any use of CVE friendly languages, hiding possible exploits.
anotheryou 6y ago
Anything OSS that swipes and supports 2 languages at once with that?
cooperadymas 6y ago
I've never had the notion or urge to try a different keyboard than what came with the various Android phones I've had over the years. It looks like there are some possible privacy benefits to it, but why else should I switch? What advantage do other keyboards give or what is wrong with the default ones?
- Normal_gaussian 6y ago
  I don't know about open source privacy centric keyboards, but I bought Minuum many years ago and its awesome. It gives me way more screen real estate (particularly useful if I'm commenting and referencing previous messages). I'm really concerned about it stopping working one day.
andrew_ 6y ago
Sadly these come and go so frequently that unless you're into constantly tinkering, it can be exhausting to keep up with which keyboard is or is not in active development and receiving updates. OpenBoard seems to be suffering the same https://github.com/dslul/openboard/issues/250 https://github.com/dslul/openboard/issues/250
smichel17 6y ago
I use an old version of the Swype keyboard, that came pre-installed on my Galaxy S6. Unfortunately, I've become so used to swipe and gesture support (particularly "Ctrl"-{a,x,c,v}) that I'm waiting on a FLO keyboard that can do those things to switch.
- troyvit 6y ago
  I haven't seen Multiling O Keyboard (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kl.ime.oh https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kl.ime.oh) mentioned yet. It's not nearly as accurate as Gboard out of the box but once you get used to it and train it well it's not bad. It is insanely configurable.
Noxmiles 6y ago
Well, it seems not to have a Swype functionality. Actually, on small Touchscreens without feedback this is quite essential. We really need an full open source keyboard with some kind of Swype. Sadly I don't know any.
- aasasd 6y ago
  AnySoftKeyboard has swipe-typing, though alas it's not as smooth as in commercial apps.
- troyvit 6y ago
  Multiling O Keyboard (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kl.ime.oh https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kl.ime.oh) has swipe. Accuracy is not great and it takes awhile to train but it doesn't have internet permissions at all. It's also highly configurable.
  - aasasd 6y ago
    It didn't have the net permission until sometime in 2019, when it started to have it—without any indication as to why, and even the text ‘no internet permission = safer’ remained on the store page. It seems the permission is again dropped now—but see user reviews for indication that it was indeed once used. For such a personal and important piece of software I for one will prefer an app that doesn't flip-flop on this decision—who's to say that it won't flip again tomorrow? The app is great; it being closed, not so much.
URfejk 6y ago
I use Hacker's Keyboard. It is good enough for me.
nonbirithm 6y ago
Really, really wish there was Japanese support. That's one of the main reasons I have to keep using Gboard. Also, my typing ability on mobile has been spoiled by Google's admittedly superior autocorrect. I find that many of the frequent mistakes I make are not detected or modified incorrectly on other keyboards, and have to re-learn a lot. It almost feels like vendor lock-in from bad typing habits.
- NDICjQ2zlm5vJ6S 6y ago
  I've used a bunch of open source Japanese keyboards: Mozc[0] (might be related to Gboard? haven't used gboard but the app is based off the same source code that powers Google IME), nicoWnnG[1]. I'm not sure how well they fare compared to proprietary keyboards but they've been good enough for my occasional use of Japanese. [0]: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.mozc.android.inputmethod.japanese/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.mozc.android.inputmethod... [1]: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.gorry.android.input.nicownng/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.gorry.android.input.nico...
bestboy 6y ago
In case one is using LineageOS, what keyboard is used then? Is it the vanilla AOSP keyboard? How does the LineageOS keyboard compare to privacy conscious keyboards like this one or the AnysoftKeyboard?
- approxim8ion 6y ago
  My understanding is the LOS very much uses the vanilla AOSP keyboard, which is basic but FOSS so about the same privacy-wise as this or ASK.
CarVac 6y ago
I use MessagEase, which has a wacky layout that makes typos much less frequent, and thus doesn't need autocorrect. Not open-source, unfortunately.
- helmholtz 6y ago
  Oof. Just looked it up and it immediately gets my fancy. How was the learning curve? And any downsides that you now have?
  - CarVac 6y ago
    It took me only three or so days to get used to it. The lack of autocorrect was so refreshing that I just kept typing for practice. The downside now is that, unlike the QWERTY to Dvorak switch, I've become exceedingly clumsy at typing on ordinary phone keyboards.
    - helmholtz 6y ago
      I'm sold :) Going to try it out for a couple of weeks and see how it feels.
    - helmholtz 6y ago
      It's proving to be right up my alley. I switched to programmer's dvorak on the PC for exactly this reason; in the harebrained pursuit of ever increasing ergonomic efficiency!
- Semaphor 6y ago
  Thanks, this looks interesting. And the settings. So many settings and I love settings :D No permissions at all is pretty impressive. The only thing I can’t figure out: How will they make money? They seem to have run a IndieGoGo campaign and now ask for donations (hidden in the settings), but that will eventually run out. This is especially worrying with something as specialized as this.
  - CarVac 6y ago
ktm5j 6y ago
Holy crow, the feature where you can move the cursor by swiping back and forth on the spacebar is AMAZING. Seriously, I have always struggled with moving the cursor in text on either android or ios. This is great!
- Kelamir 6y ago
  Not only that. You can also erase text by swiping left starting from the delete button.
  - ktm5j 6y ago
    Neat!
- whalesalad 6y ago
  On iOS hold down the space bar and it becomes a mouse cursor.
  - 72deluxe 6y ago
    On iPad, use 2 fingers on the keyboard and the keyboard becomes a touchpad.
- akvadrako 6y ago
  Yes, it's amazing. And this also works on the default Android/iOS keyboards too.
  - ktm5j 6y ago
    oh.. really? Now I feel silly haha
    - Topgamer7 6y ago
      Yeah its super useful. Although the detection of it is not perfect. Sometimes you end up inserting a space (:
Markoff 6y ago
no swipe typing, I find much easier just use Gboard and disable internet access to Gboard through firewall and you don't need to care about privacy
Sunspark 6y ago
I can only use the SwiftKey keyboard for physical reasons. I have a big 6.7" device, and this keyboard allows me to type with the keyboard closer to the middle of the screen. If I type on the bottom, it's harder to hold the device and it becomes unbalanced. If they haven't already done so since last time I checked, I encourage the FOSS keyboards to consider adding a "raise the position" of the keyboard feature.
quyleanh 6y ago
What are OpenBoard's advantages over Simple Keyboard?
catacombs 6y ago
Is there an iOS version?
3r8riacz 6y ago
Once you get used to the honeycomb pattern, there is no turning back from Typewise: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.icoaching.wrio https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.icoaching.w... It has a free version, too, but the beta users were upgraded to the paid version earlier. Not opensource but doesn't even have access to the net.
sedatk 6y ago
A privacy-preserving keyboard on Android feels like having a stainless steel water flask in the middle of a desert. Yeah, great but...
chrysoprace 6y ago
I love OpenBoard but their development has been very slow in the time that I've been using it. It's really solid for the most part but there's just a couple of features (like swipe-typing, and emoji search) that I wish it had. Still though, better than GBoard spying on me.
nshm 6y ago
Please consider integration with Vosk https://github.com/alphacep/vosk https://github.com/alphacep/vosk for offline speech recognition. It should be a good fit.
Lucasoato 6y ago
Is anyone aware of privacy issues with SwiftKey?
SergeAx 6y ago
I love FOSS and even trying to contribute a bit here and there. I instantly decided to give this keyboard a try and man, I didn't realize how I used to swype! Not having a swype is a show-stopper for me. Am I understand it right that swyping is a patented tech[0] and we will not see it in FOSS for at least 6 more years? [0] http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7,098,896.PN.&OS=PN/7,098,896&RS=PN/7,098,896 http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=H...

Great project. It's funny that we are at a point where even keyboard apps are spying on your personal and private data. Crazy.

_trampeltier 6y ago
Yes, a keyboard app just should not allowed to have a network connection, but yeah, a thing to dream in 2021.
- aargh_aargh 6y ago
  As an Android user, not developer, I wanted to ask how are permissions on Android these days. Is "internet access" permission just granted for any app by default without asking the user? There were initiatives (probably 3rd party) for more granular permissions, but I haven't noticed this becoming common. I vaguely remember that Android started asking for some individual permissions not upon installation, but only when they were first used by the app, e.g. camera access. Why is this not the case for internet access? In a nutshell, how did permission granting in stock Android develop from say Android 3.x times? I understand that some keyboards want to provide suggestions using a dictionary they download online. Also, I used to use SwiftKey once which wanted to read all my mail to produce better suggestions. Is there even a good way to balance the benefits (features) and risks (uploading a key log if the app is sold/abandoned and taken over by an attacker)?
  - est31 6y ago
    > Is "internet access" permission just granted for any app by default without asking the user? IIRC it was changed because people complained that a lot of apps required that permission despite the functionality not needing it. E.g. calculator app or whatever. Turns out that you need this permission if you want to display ads. So Google just sided with the advertisers and removed the permission from the display. Generally, I believe that Google likes internet connected things because they as a company have better tools to capture online revenue streams vs offline ones.
    - darkwater 6y ago
      Even if I hate ads and I think one should be able to ban them forever on their devices, Android could just add an "Internet access" permission that only counts for Internet access required outside the Ads API, so they would keep their ads and users could be a bit safer on the "this app is snooping my data" side.
      - aargh_aargh 6y ago
        I agree that it would be nice to separate the privileges if it were possible. I suspect that allowing internet access even in the form of ads opens the possibility for data exfiltration in principle. But I'm not familiar with the Android case at all.
        wizzwizz4 6y ago
        It allows for expensive, obvious data exfiltration. (Expensive in the sense that somebody else could take the data, unless you're the highest bidder for those categories – assuming Google Ads still shows ads with a bid of 0, which I'm not confident in.)
      - kelchqvjpnfasjl 6y ago
        > outside the Ads API Presumably these Ad APIs would be for access to Google Ads. That would seem like an anti-trust issue.
      - wongarsu 6y ago
        That would only work if they open up the Ads API to work with any ad network. Otherwise it would basically kill any competition in the Android Ad space, which would probably lead to EU and US regulators coming down hard on Google.
        bostonvaulter2 6y ago
        They could instead expand the permission system to group various ad api's so that each api is considered a distinct permission. Honestly would be good to do that in addition (i.e. separate from) the general internet permission.
  - fy20 6y ago
    Certain permissions (internet is one example) are granted when the app is installed, other permissions (e.g. access to photos) require the user to give access through a dialog prompt (and from Android 10(?) the user will be asked again every so often, rather than just once). All permissions an app can use are listed in the manifest file, and are displayed on Google Play.
  - netizen-9748 6y ago
    A good solution to this is using iptables to control what has access to which networks, rather than relying on the OS. AFWall+ is a nice front end for iptables and requires root. Netguard is another option that doesn't require root, but I'm not sure how that one works.
- kevincox 6y ago
  I know I "shouldn't" but I use Google Keyboard. It is really compelling and has legitimate use cases for a network connection with the built in GIF search.
est31 6y ago
It's coming for the hardware keyboards as well. See comments in this thread: https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/95f7lw/das_keyboard_banning_users_from_the_5q_forums_for/ https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/95f7lw/das_keyboard_...
Cthulhu_ 6y ago
In theory, they keep your data private, combine it with the greater learnings of the world, and provide you with perfect autocomplete and autocorrect. In practice though, it just doesn't work. I got GBoard for a while because it has a bilingual keyboard, but the autocomplete suggestions often ended up being people's first names instead of common words (and not even the people I was talking to).
- jfengel 6y ago
  I speak French much better with GBoard, because it spells better than I do. It also has a pretty good sense of grammar: it will often autocomplete the correct ending of a verb. (It feels like cheating to use it with Duolingo.) Of course I speak only simple French, and those are the cases where its primitive learning is most apt. When I speak English, its suggestions are less useful, because I use a much wider vocabulary and more sophisticated sentence structure.

StavrosK 6y ago

I would love it if we could get something like SwiftKey, but actively developed. Its predictions are magic, but lately it has been getting more and more buggy, suggesting words that don't exist, changing already-correct words to nonsense, and refusing to learn.

philips 6y ago
I am experiencing the same issues with GBoard: suggestions just getting worse and worse. I dug through the settings and haven’t seen anything obvious.
popeathlete 6y ago
Try AnySoftKeyboard. Works great and is FOSS.
- przmk 6y ago
  In my experience, the predictions were atrocious and not very smart, at least in French. It also couldn't detect words that had personal pronouns or determiners with an apostrophe, I had to type the apostrophe manually which is a no-go for me. And it does not support having multiple languages at once which is incredibly inconvenient when you frequently have to switch between 4 languages when typing and when you often mix some of them. But if you type without the autocorrect and the predictions, it can be great, I guess.
  - cerved 6y ago
    this. gboard is the only solution I've used that's decent at multilingual typing it still gets confused when you mix languages but in general it's ok
- StavrosK 6y ago
  This looks interesting so far, thank you.
Semaphor 6y ago
Try deleting cache and data (backup your personal dictionary first). As with everything smart that learns (obviously YMMV, but that is my experience) it gets worse over time. Back when I used SwiftKey I deleted everything once a month to have a decent experience.

older 6y ago

Is it better than Hacker's Keyboard? https://github.com/klausw/hackerskeyboard https://github.com/klausw/hackerskeyboard

SftwreEngnr 6y ago
Who cares?
lucb1e 6y ago
It takes very little to be better than Hacker's Keyboard. For me suggestions are broken altogether, but if you randomly get them to work and type "Ecample" it will not suggest anything because there are no words with that prefix. It also doesn't look at the previous word to bias which are likely next words (either in general or combined with the characters already typed). It's the dumbest keyboard ever, which is very nice on virtual terminals (hence it being a hacker's keyboard and my having it installed), but it's not useful as a general purpose keyboard.
stiray 6y ago
For me hackers keyboard is still far best keyboard found, the only thing that annoys me is that it has no smileys button, for everything else it fits great. I use ssh a lot and all the suggestions and other bells and whistles of other keyboards are more annoyance than anything else, but i need access to all the keys that normal keyboard has. And '/', tab and enter must be accessible all the time this is absolutely primary requirement for me to use any keyboard.
- hyperpallium2 6y ago
  Space doesn't repeat, and will not fix.
  - stiray 6y ago
    You dont need to, I got myself cosmo communicator[1] and running linux (but still waiting for them to support camera to stop using the android phone completely). I am sick of androoogle ecosystem and touch keyboards :) [1]https://store.planetcom.co.uk/products/cosmo-communicator https://store.planetcom.co.uk/products/cosmo-communicator

Kinrany 6y ago

I use Fleksy, its predictions and gesture controls are fantastic. Is there an open keyboard that does the same?

Kinrany 6y ago
Yep, the one in the title

2Gkashmiri 6y ago

How is this different from AnySoftKeyboard ? I have been using that for a long time now

lcnmrn 6y ago

Simple Keyboard is both on F-Droid and Play Store. https://github.com/rkkr/simple-keyboard https://github.com/rkkr/simple-keyboard

fogihujy 6y ago
I'll add a vote for Simple Keyboard. It's lightweight, fast, and does exactly what it says on the package.
betamike 6y ago
Just a note for anyone checking it out, Simple Keyboard doesn't support spellcheck (which is why I use OpenBoard instead).

MayeulC 6y ago

I use AnysoftKeyboard (on F-Droid) [1]. I's pretty good, but has issues with the French apostrophe, that's often used to combine words. It also has multiple keyboard layouts, of which "terminal" compares favorably to hacker's keyboard. I like that it is configurable, and has a lot of text editing tools when swiping space up. I admit I lost some typing speed when I switched from the alternatives, but I'm happier with it. [1] https://anysoftkeyboard.github.io/ https://anysoftkeyboard.github.io/

circularfoyers 6y ago
I don't see any reason why someone would use OpenBoard over AnySoftKeyboard. It would of been nice if there was an explanation of what differentiated it. If someone just wanted a different looking keyboard they could just have created a new theme for AnySoftKeyboard. AnySoftKeyboard also is the only open source keyboard for Android that has gesture typing. Which is something I grew to love from when I used Gboard.
- pmontra 6y ago
  Swyping didn't work reliably when I tried one year ago, so I switched back to one of the keyboards of my phone (SwiftKey because I find it slightly better than Samsung's one.) Did they improve it in the last releases?
  - JeremyNT 6y ago
    For me, it just doesn't do the job. I love ASK but this feature isn't competitive with the closed source alternatives. Alas, I wish it were. This is all that's missing IMO.
    - bestouff 6y ago
      Can't upvote this enough.
  - ad404b8a372f2b9 6y ago
    There is a pull request open which improves the algorithm massively. Author couldn't finish it because of health issues sadly. I've installed it on my phone and it works great but I had to update some parameters in the code so it'd work.

llarsson 6y ago

No gesture typing, unfortunately. I miss that feature from GBoard, whenever I try an open source one. Yes, ASK has it, but it is not at all smart about figuring out what word I mean if I happen to not start my gesture on the exactly right starting letter.

lucb1e 6y ago
No gesture typing in 2011, ahem, 2021 is not even worth considering to me. I'm using a closed source keyboard because it just works better than all the open stuff (at least when I last tried various keyboard in ~2018), but have it firewalled off completely in AfWall+. That means no updates, though it learns new words like COVID-19 well enough from me, but also no data leaking (I'd happily contribute typing stats if it were some non-profit handling my data).
- solarkraft 6y ago
  Which one do you use?
  - lucb1e 6y ago
    Swiftkey is what I found to work the best. It puts symbols on keys (e.g. long press m to make /), can make symbols like × by long-pressing *, can have a number row above the keyboard, and the predictions are some of the best as far as I've been able to tell. I also don't mistrust Microsoft that much, since they don't have a data-oriented profit model, so even if the firewall is slow to boot up and lets it upload a backlog, even then it should be okayish. I made the mistake of updating it once, though, and got an uglier design and now need to press two buttons to get into incognito mode rather than just one. Lesson learned: never change a nice system if it's fully firewalled and isolated... or at least have a planned retreat.
xthetrfd 6y ago
You can use the swipe functionality of the gboard even with the open source android keyboard provided you are rooted. It's just a library file that you have to install.

przmk 6y ago

Fun fact, one of my banking app prevents me from launching it if I do not use a "certified" keyboard app. I had bad luck with any keyboard from F-Droid.

turminal 6y ago
Banking apps are such a disgrace. Full of weird ideas about what is ok and what is not and which data and whatnot they need or else they won't run and in the end it doesn't help at all.
- fogihujy 6y ago
  My bank recognizes the risk that third-party keyboard apps pose, and has their own keypad in their authentication app. The same bank has a maximum password length of 8 characters, and they'll truncate longer passwords without informing the user -- set the password to "correct horse battery staple" and you'll be able to log in with "correct ". When I pointed it out they recommended setting a shorter password.
Cthulhu_ 6y ago
And for good reason. It's the operating system that should offer a 'certified secure' keyboard if the app requests it though. A bit like Windows' account password entry screen that is sandboxed from the rest of the OS (if I understood it correctly).
- przmk 6y ago
  In this case, the app has its own keypad when logging in so I'm not sure what the added value is security-wise. I'm just not able to launch the app while an F-Droid keyboard is set as default which is just annoying. There's many keyboards on the Play Store that I wouldn't trust to install and use.
syncbehind 6y ago
Honestly at this point why even bother with banking apps? I've found that most of my banking needs can be done via their mobile-webpages.

vdddv 6y ago

Does that mean that the "default" keyboard on Android does not respect my privacy? As in, what does it do? Should I be worried about entering username, passwords etc from my Android device?

lucb1e 6y ago
The "default" keyboard differs from device to device. Most devices have a closed source keyboard either from Google (gboard) or from Microsoft (swiftkey). If I remember correctly, both send subsets of what you type to the mothership and pinky swear to only use it for product improvement and guard your data with their lives.
- Bellamy 6y ago
  So Xiaomi, Google, Samsung etc. knows everything we write and erase? I getting really paranoid...
  - izacus 6y ago
    Google claims to use differential privacy / federated learning for their GBoard: https://ai.googleblog.com/2020/05/federated-analytics-collaborative-data.html https://ai.googleblog.com/2020/05/federated-analytics-collab... No idea about others.
  - lucb1e 6y ago
    I wouldn't put it that strongly.
pedrogpimenta 6y ago
"Default" may mean different things. A Samsung phone has a Samsung keyboard as the default keyboard, while a Pixel would have Gboard (I guess). I assume they send every word you type to their servers, but I also assume it's encrypted in transport, so it would be somewhat safe? It's a very very difficult struggle.

sbt567 6y ago

I'm using FlorisBoard which is amazing!. It's just recently developed and many features still WIP. But excited to see the future!

tumblewit 6y ago

As a very long term iOS user, when I saw this headline my first reaction was why is keyboard privacy even a thing i've never even bothered changing the keyboard of iOS and would certainly be prompted for any suspicious activity like mic or camera and would instantly reject it if i ever installed one. But this is very complicated on Android. I once maintained an Android phone for my Dad and the permissions prompt on that are so overwhelming that it's very easy to get people into 'accepting all' and I feel like this is the idea behind the design by Google. One shouldn't be worried about a keyboard spying about you and should be as easy as flip of a switch in settings from not allowing it but it's a lot more complicated than that on Android.

sepnax 6y ago
I don't know if this post was supposed to be funny, but it certainly made me laugh.
Kelamir 6y ago
> and should be as easy as flip of a switch in settings from not allowing it but it's a lot more complicated than that on Android. One can just check the permissions of a keyboard to see if it includes internet access. If it does, don't use it.
izacus 6y ago
Well, iOS uses the same differential ML approach for their keyboard suggestion learning just like Google's GBoard does. So you kinda have the same concern there.

thelittleone 6y ago

This clean layout looks great. I've moved from IOS to Android 6 months ago and have been frustrated by a high % of intended alpha char keystrokes ending up as stickers culminating recently in me sending "I miss you" sticker to my boss.

dingaling 6y ago

Still using the inverted-triangle row arrangement, though. If we're stuck with on-screen keyboards, please at least maximise use of horizontal space to make each 'key' as wide as possible. There's no need to copy the century-old typewriter convention. I have a compact Cherry server-rack physical keyboard with the keys arranged in a grid and it's perfectly usable.

Happpy 6y ago

I'm using it with a colemak layout. The only thing I'm missing is multi language predictions. Now I have to switch(long press space) layouts each time I need another language. I regularly use the swipe spacebar and swipe backspace. I never use speech or swiping

pjmlp 6y ago

I fail to see why the use of native code. If it is to respect privacy, it should also not have any use of CVE friendly languages, hiding possible exploits.

anotheryou 6y ago

Anything OSS that swipes and supports 2 languages at once with that?

cooperadymas 6y ago

I've never had the notion or urge to try a different keyboard than what came with the various Android phones I've had over the years. It looks like there are some possible privacy benefits to it, but why else should I switch? What advantage do other keyboards give or what is wrong with the default ones?

Normal_gaussian 6y ago
I don't know about open source privacy centric keyboards, but I bought Minuum many years ago and its awesome. It gives me way more screen real estate (particularly useful if I'm commenting and referencing previous messages). I'm really concerned about it stopping working one day.

andrew_ 6y ago

Sadly these come and go so frequently that unless you're into constantly tinkering, it can be exhausting to keep up with which keyboard is or is not in active development and receiving updates. OpenBoard seems to be suffering the same https://github.com/dslul/openboard/issues/250 https://github.com/dslul/openboard/issues/250

smichel17 6y ago

I use an old version of the Swype keyboard, that came pre-installed on my Galaxy S6. Unfortunately, I've become so used to swipe and gesture support (particularly "Ctrl"-{a,x,c,v}) that I'm waiting on a FLO keyboard that can do those things to switch.

troyvit 6y ago
I haven't seen Multiling O Keyboard (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kl.ime.oh https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kl.ime.oh) mentioned yet. It's not nearly as accurate as Gboard out of the box but once you get used to it and train it well it's not bad. It is insanely configurable.

Noxmiles 6y ago

Well, it seems not to have a Swype functionality. Actually, on small Touchscreens without feedback this is quite essential. We really need an full open source keyboard with some kind of Swype. Sadly I don't know any.

aasasd 6y ago
AnySoftKeyboard has swipe-typing, though alas it's not as smooth as in commercial apps.
troyvit 6y ago
Multiling O Keyboard (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kl.ime.oh https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kl.ime.oh) has swipe. Accuracy is not great and it takes awhile to train but it doesn't have internet permissions at all. It's also highly configurable.
- aasasd 6y ago
  It didn't have the net permission until sometime in 2019, when it started to have it—without any indication as to why, and even the text ‘no internet permission = safer’ remained on the store page. It seems the permission is again dropped now—but see user reviews for indication that it was indeed once used. For such a personal and important piece of software I for one will prefer an app that doesn't flip-flop on this decision—who's to say that it won't flip again tomorrow? The app is great; it being closed, not so much.

URfejk 6y ago

I use Hacker's Keyboard. It is good enough for me.

nonbirithm 6y ago

Really, really wish there was Japanese support. That's one of the main reasons I have to keep using Gboard. Also, my typing ability on mobile has been spoiled by Google's admittedly superior autocorrect. I find that many of the frequent mistakes I make are not detected or modified incorrectly on other keyboards, and have to re-learn a lot. It almost feels like vendor lock-in from bad typing habits.

NDICjQ2zlm5vJ6S 6y ago
I've used a bunch of open source Japanese keyboards: Mozc[0] (might be related to Gboard? haven't used gboard but the app is based off the same source code that powers Google IME), nicoWnnG[1]. I'm not sure how well they fare compared to proprietary keyboards but they've been good enough for my occasional use of Japanese. [0]: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.mozc.android.inputmethod.japanese/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.mozc.android.inputmethod... [1]: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.gorry.android.input.nicownng/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.gorry.android.input.nico...

bestboy 6y ago

In case one is using LineageOS, what keyboard is used then? Is it the vanilla AOSP keyboard? How does the LineageOS keyboard compare to privacy conscious keyboards like this one or the AnysoftKeyboard?

approxim8ion 6y ago
My understanding is the LOS very much uses the vanilla AOSP keyboard, which is basic but FOSS so about the same privacy-wise as this or ASK.

CarVac 6y ago

I use MessagEase, which has a wacky layout that makes typos much less frequent, and thus doesn't need autocorrect. Not open-source, unfortunately.

helmholtz 6y ago
Oof. Just looked it up and it immediately gets my fancy. How was the learning curve? And any downsides that you now have?
- CarVac 6y ago
  It took me only three or so days to get used to it. The lack of autocorrect was so refreshing that I just kept typing for practice. The downside now is that, unlike the QWERTY to Dvorak switch, I've become exceedingly clumsy at typing on ordinary phone keyboards.
  - helmholtz 6y ago
    I'm sold :) Going to try it out for a couple of weeks and see how it feels.
  - helmholtz 6y ago
    It's proving to be right up my alley. I switched to programmer's dvorak on the PC for exactly this reason; in the harebrained pursuit of ever increasing ergonomic efficiency!
Semaphor 6y ago
Thanks, this looks interesting. And the settings. So many settings and I love settings :D No permissions at all is pretty impressive. The only thing I can’t figure out: How will they make money? They seem to have run a IndieGoGo campaign and now ask for donations (hidden in the settings), but that will eventually run out. This is especially worrying with something as specialized as this.
- CarVac 6y ago

ktm5j 6y ago

Holy crow, the feature where you can move the cursor by swiping back and forth on the spacebar is AMAZING. Seriously, I have always struggled with moving the cursor in text on either android or ios. This is great!

Kelamir 6y ago
Not only that. You can also erase text by swiping left starting from the delete button.
- ktm5j 6y ago
  Neat!
whalesalad 6y ago
On iOS hold down the space bar and it becomes a mouse cursor.
- 72deluxe 6y ago
  On iPad, use 2 fingers on the keyboard and the keyboard becomes a touchpad.
akvadrako 6y ago
Yes, it's amazing. And this also works on the default Android/iOS keyboards too.
- ktm5j 6y ago
  oh.. really? Now I feel silly haha
  - Topgamer7 6y ago
    Yeah its super useful. Although the detection of it is not perfect. Sometimes you end up inserting a space (:

Markoff 6y ago

no swipe typing, I find much easier just use Gboard and disable internet access to Gboard through firewall and you don't need to care about privacy

Sunspark 6y ago

I can only use the SwiftKey keyboard for physical reasons. I have a big 6.7" device, and this keyboard allows me to type with the keyboard closer to the middle of the screen. If I type on the bottom, it's harder to hold the device and it becomes unbalanced. If they haven't already done so since last time I checked, I encourage the FOSS keyboards to consider adding a "raise the position" of the keyboard feature.

quyleanh 6y ago

What are OpenBoard's advantages over Simple Keyboard?

catacombs 6y ago

Is there an iOS version?

3r8riacz 6y ago

Once you get used to the honeycomb pattern, there is no turning back from Typewise: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.icoaching.wrio https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.icoaching.w... It has a free version, too, but the beta users were upgraded to the paid version earlier. Not opensource but doesn't even have access to the net.

sedatk 6y ago

A privacy-preserving keyboard on Android feels like having a stainless steel water flask in the middle of a desert. Yeah, great but...

chrysoprace 6y ago

I love OpenBoard but their development has been very slow in the time that I've been using it. It's really solid for the most part but there's just a couple of features (like swipe-typing, and emoji search) that I wish it had. Still though, better than GBoard spying on me.

nshm 6y ago

Please consider integration with Vosk https://github.com/alphacep/vosk https://github.com/alphacep/vosk for offline speech recognition. It should be a good fit.

Lucasoato 6y ago

Is anyone aware of privacy issues with SwiftKey?

SergeAx 6y ago

I love FOSS and even trying to contribute a bit here and there. I instantly decided to give this keyboard a try and man, I didn't realize how I used to swype! Not having a swype is a show-stopper for me. Am I understand it right that swyping is a patented tech[0] and we will not see it in FOSS for at least 6 more years? [0] http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7,098,896.PN.&OS=PN/7,098,896&RS=PN/7,098,896 http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=H...