I came across everyday topic on Techlore Discussions about free and open source keyboards for Android and discovered this little gem. It is FlorisBoard, a virtual keyboard for Android which respects privacy of the user. I can sigh with relief and finish my search for that singular keyboard for typing stuff on the go.
It has everything I need and more.
- Multilanguage support: detailed layout options, popular presets
- Swift and glide typing experience
- Customizable gestures: switch language by fast swiping the keyboard itself left and right, change case by swiping up, the infamous cursor swipe on space bar
- Emojis
- Clipboard
- Smartbar: quick actions and clipboard cursor tools
- One-handed mode
- Other look-and-feel settings
It was abandoned for almost a year, glad to see commits picking up again. Though the latest beta/stable releases are still incredibly outdated and broken, so not really in a usable state with the incomplete auto correct.
Why are the versions of FlorisBoard and OpenBoard, available on F-Droid so old? I really don’t like to download important apps from a github release page and keep everything updated manually…
Check out Obtainium
F-Droid has the most up-to-date versions (v0.3.16 and v1.4.5). Both of these just haven’t seen a release in a while, although the FlorisBoard developer seems to have recently returned.
They haven’t been updated in a while. Luckily there is a fork of openboard that is being updated and works quite well: https://github.com/Helium314/openboard You can easily install and update it with Obtainium.
Is there any way to tap on a word after typing a message (while proofreading before sending) and get alternate suggestions?
The absence of this is why I left FlorisBoard.
I always loved swipe typing so much, its the one non foss thing i miss so much. Currently typing off of florisboard, but until we have word recommendations (next big release i think, tho probably a long ways away still) and even a little better swipe typing I cant say a gboard foss alternate is good enough.
Funnily enough i loved keypass 2 androids built in keyboard and would use that if the ui was better, plus swipe typing again. Atleast florisboard can understand most longer words.
But having tried every foss keyboard I can comfortably say, i like floris board the most.
Have you tried AnySoftKeyboard? It has solid word predictions and the swiping works great… available on fdroid
Not OP but AnySoftKeyboard’s word prediction is not as good as GBoard’s. Especially when you need to use two languages, there nothing even comes close to GBoard unfortunately.
May try it out if I can get over the fact that I won’t have multi language support without switching manually anymore. I’ve been trying to move away from SwiftKey, but as someone who typed regularly in 3 (occasionally 4) languages and switches between them quite a lot, it’s a feature that I’m not sure I can live without. So far I haven’t seen any FOSS keyboards supporting multi language in such a seamless way.
Dunno how SwiftKey does it, but florisboard allows you to switch language by swiping, check out the demo video in OP
SwiftKey you don’t need to switch language. If both languages use the same same alphabet you can use both of them interchangeable without doing anything. For people that use multiple languages it’s very useful.
Just downloaded it to try. Seems pretty good so far
Swipe typing is not great. I come back to it every few months to try it again and always end up frustrated. It’s good if you are a tap typer, though.
What you guys call “swipe typing” is actually a glide typing, right?
Swipe typing is brutal
It needs to be so precise!
This is my problem with every keyboard (FOSS or otherwise) since Swype finished. Gboard is the best of the bunch now but I’m loath to use it. I have tried Floris and Open (a fork of it which has swiping) and others, and they are all painful on this front.
I use SwiftKey and remove its Internet access.
Adios gboard !
@vintprox I tried it out. Except it doesn’t have Chinese input so I can’t use it.
Why isn’t it on the play store, does that cost the developer?
I hope to impose a better question: why would it not cost the developer? $25 may be a steal for some, but I don’t think a proprietary store really deserves so much attention from primarily FOSS developer.
I’d like to use it by my phone is supplied by work and blocks side-loading. Oh well.
This is terrible news. :( Sorry to hear that work makes you download from proprietary store front. I suppose, expecting phones with LineageOS, CalyxOS, GrapheneOS, etc given for work purposes is a bit much at this moment, but at least side-loading should be provided if we’re to avoid monopoly. To me, it’s never healthy if organization is fixated on using only the single app kit for everything.
Genuine question: is there any way for any keyboard application to be privacy disrespecting if their internet access is blocked off by a firewall?
I’m going to take a guess and say that it might be possible for it to still be, for example GBoard may share info with the other Google apps who then share it with the world.
Otherwise, if it’s completely blocked from the outside world? Definitely not.
Do you know if there is any way to check and potentially also block inter-app communications like that?
I’m sure there’s some way to monitor that using ADB or another tool, but at that point you’re wasting so so much time that you should just get an open source trusted app.
This is the open source community, not the privacy community. Privacy isn’t the only reason to prefer free software. Some of us enjoy having the four freedoms.
