So, up front, I’ll admit I’m one of those guys that gets hung up on tiny, largely irrelevant quirks in apps. Yeah, I’m great fun at parties.
So, what’s your favourite keyboard app? I keep coming back to SwiftKey. I feel like it’s the best typing experience for me, with fairly accurate prediction and correction — although it’s far from perfect, of course. I’ve seen plenty of people complain about it, and apart from Microsoft adding Bing to it, it’s not received much in the way of innovation or useful updates since they bought it.
I particularly like that a long press on the backspace key will delete one whole word at a time, speeding up the longer you hold it down. I simply haven’t found the backspace methods on Gboard or the Samsung keyboard (which used to be Swype I guess?) to be as predictable or reliable. Gboard’s swipe back doesn’t feel predictable in what it will do, and Samsung’s backspace is more like iOS.
I also find SwiftKey to be the best at remembering sequences of words; if I start typing my address, it’ll generally remember each successive word and offer it as the main prediction on the top row. Samsung and Gboard both do that to some extent, but I just haven’t found them to be as reliably predictable in the results.
On the other hand, I hate that SwiftKey doesn’t can’t add an image to its clipboard. Copying and pasting images is a breeze with both Gboard and Samsung’s keyboard, but with SwiftKey I pretty much have to download/screengrab and upload any image I want to insert in a chat or post.
So, that’s it. Rant over! What’s your favourite keyboard app, and does anything irritate you about it?
I use Gboard because it just works. I would like to move to a FOSS keyboard but every one I’ve tried become frustrating to use.
Yep. Much as I hate to say it, GBoard just feels good in a way that none of the other major swipe keyboards have for me.
I agree. I’ve tried so many FOSS keyboards and no matter how hard I try, I just have to go back to gboard. It’s wild how hard it is to find a good keyboard. I can’t even use the stock Samsung one anymore
GBoard without internet access is good compromise for me.
I use OpenBoard, its simplistic, but it works well for my needs, and its probably the best FOSS option I’ve seen. Florisboard has a lot of potential so I’ll probably switch to that in the future when it improves, its FOSS and pretty close to Gboard.
Same. I missed swiping at first, but it was getting so unreliable that I think I’m better off now that I’m getting used to it. It fixes my two major annoyances with the AOSP keyboard, though: occasionally losing suggestions until clearing cache and force restarting, and no suggestions in search fields.
I was really looking forward to Florisboard, but it’s been almost a year since the last update.
And unfortunately, the lack of support for non-English suggestions is a deal-breaker for me.
I use Gboard because the prediction is better than the others. As a Japanese speaker, the choice is limited.
I’m the same way regarding quirks. I’ve been using Gboard and for a while bounced between that and Samsung Keyboard. Gboard has the best overall usability for me but a couple things I’m not a fan of: Gboard deleting clipboard history (only from Gboard as it’s still available elsewhere), and including \ as a long press symbol rather than /,where you have to tsp the symbols key and then tap /.
Samsung Keyboard has a few quirks as well, but the biggest was predictive text isn’t as good as Gboard. But I like the customization of it. But I can’t see the symbols on the keys as well as I can on Gboard.
I was a fan of Chroma Keyboard years ago because I liked that it would change color based on the app.
fyi, long-pressing the period key on Gboard gives you some more symbols to choose from, including /.
also includes some symbols that are already behind other keys which is kinda weird.
Yeah, I know, but it just seemed weird to include \ when / seems to be more widely used? Or maybe it’s just me lol.
I still use Gboard the most. My wife uses Samsung keyboard and prefers it over Gboard.
I don’t have s Samsung phone so I can’t test that.
Grammarly bc it makes really good suggestions bc i word oorly.
I love Multiling, but unfortunately it is not actively supported anymore
Super customisable, helpful for a Colemak user like, and shortcuts for select all, copy, paste etc in ALL text inputs even if they blocked such things. Also many ways to customize text and things like special symbols etc
Minuum Keyboard master race!
Glad to hear Minuum is still up and running. I couldn’t get super comfortable with it, but I love the concept… and I still remember that first, awful announcement video with the poorly mixed vocals that made it sound like the founder’s name was Will Wompwomp.
I still think it’s the future of keyboards. I will die on the hill that QWERTY makes zero logical sense for touchscreen keyboards and that not utilising machine learning for fuzzy typing is a waste of processor.
I’m gonna say messagease is totally better.
I never got into it 😞
Ooh, just seen one of the developers of Lemmy made a successor for MessageEase https://www.f-droid.org/packages/com.dessalines.thumbkey/
I remember using and loving minuum when it came out especially because I had a smaller phone at the time. But it hasn’t updated in quite a while.
Are there any other keyboard apps out there that have the same layout options?
Sadly no other keyboard with the same layout yet. I’m still hoping for a patched version, maybe Revanced or for someone just to recreate it as an open source release.
Hacker’s Keyboard. It’s the only one other than Gboard I ever use, as it was the only one I had found with a full desktop keyboard. I do terminal and remote desktop shit a lot, so I sometimes need the keys that aren’t typically available on a phone keyboard.
I like Gboard, Swiftkey was my favorite for a long time before Gboard seemed to outpace it. Clipboard functionally, both history and images, swipe to delete, text input, it’s just a tight experience most of the time.
SwiftKey… Been using it for years now.
I use Openboard. I migrated from iOS and found Openboard to be the most familiar, with key borders turned on in settings.
Using GBoard begrudgingly because there’s no better alternative for me personally. I depend on the swipe typing and gestures a lot. Personalisation is off, and I don’t use the next-word suggestions that often.
I don’t really like SwiftKey’s design or its Microsoft affiliation. I wish there was a good open-source alternative. Florisboard looks promising, but the last time I tried it, it was still lacking in features.
Used Swype until cancelled. Tried many gesture keyboards and Gboard is best now.
Unfortunately as a multi lingual user which includes using a more “exotic” language. There is not much choice asides from either SwiftKey or Gboard (I use SwiftKey)