Last time I saw anyone mention FlorisBoard, a whole post’s comments section was recommending it. Almost like the post got brigaded by astroturfers shilling FlorisBoard. At the time it didn’t even have autocorrect or other basic features. It felt like the Twilight zone.
Now, I don’t trust anyone who recommends it because it had literally no features over an already established keyboard like HeliBoard, yet a entire post of evangelists coming out of the woodwork. Makes no sense.
I mean I like using FlorisBoard as it has fairly frequent updates. If you enjoy using Heliboard that’s also fair.
Almost like the post got brigades by astroturfers shilling FlorisBoard. At the time it didn’t even have autocorrect or other basic features. It felt like the Twilight zone.
Now, I don’t trust anyone who recommends it because it had literally no features over an already established keyboard like HeliBoard, yet a entire post of evangelists coming out of the woodwork. Makes no sense.
Please don’t make this a tribal/team camp thing. Bashing other projects is quite disgusting and offensive especially without any real reason.
Again if you enjoy Heliboard that’s cool, just don’t diss and talk down additional FOSS projects. The FOSS ecosysten is different from the traditional proprietary ecosystem like Microsoft and Oracle.
It was eerie. I’m just telling you what my honest impression was. The thread was “What’s your favorite Android keyboard?” and like 8 of the first 10 comments were for Florisboard, despite it being far behind other keyboards, and I had never even heard of it. It made me feel it was some sort of scam keyboard. It’s similar to a situation where if every YouTube influencer is telling me I need to insall something, that’s a giant red flag. Especially when that thing was objectively worse than other options at the time.
Don’t tell me I can’t comment with my honest experiences.
And here you are touting a feature that other keyboards have had for years.
Swiping on the space bar only moves characters, the faster/longer you swipe, the more characters or words you swipe. There are no other functionalities that overlap or conflict with this
I have multiple languages on gboard…If you’re too slow with the swipe it will open up the language selection menu. There are a total of three buttons to switch languages
Easy enough to install, but despite using a closed-source lib from Google, it doesn’t seem to work nearly as well as GBoard. Feels like I have to go back and correct every other word, and it doesn’t seem to choose words contextually or learn from the ones I select.
It gave me the word “Ines” 3 times just now while trying to swipe “ones”. Trying to swipe “pretty” gave me Perry, prey, Peru, petty, piety, pottery, and pet before I gave up and typed it manually (or “toured it nakedly”.)
Back to GBoard for me I think. Unfortunately, I don’t see the benefit of a FOSS keyboard that is forced to use closed-source Google code anyway for an objectively worse experience if you rely on swiping. FlorisBoard says they’re working on their own implementation of “glide typing” that sounds promising, so I’ll be keeping an eye on that.
From their github:
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)
I have this plus several other features like shifting left and right on the spacebar with FlorisBoard
If by shifting left and right you mean moving the cursor, that has been in gboard for 5+ years.
fair enough although I’m more interested in FOSS🌱 apps rather than proprietary and especially Google🗑️ apps
Are FOSS apps inherently for newbs? Since you gave it the sprout marker from FFXIV?
oh uhh I used the sprout emoji from FlorisBoard to symbolize growth.
not really sure how to answer this as Free Open Source Software (FOSS) apps are just more trustworthy than proprietary apps.
It mostly depends on the development age of the project.
Being brutally honest FOSS apps that are:
So “Are FOSS apps inherently for newbs?” is kinda hard to answer.
If instead I was asked: “Is x FOSS app easier to use than y proprietary app?” this I could probably give you a more definitive satisfactory answer.
Haha, thanks for giving it a serious answer, I was just making a silly joke. 😅🫶
no worries🤗
Oh shit that is some s-tier emoji use haha
Why not HeliBoard?
Last time I saw anyone mention FlorisBoard, a whole post’s comments section was recommending it. Almost like the post got brigaded by astroturfers shilling FlorisBoard. At the time it didn’t even have autocorrect or other basic features. It felt like the Twilight zone.
Now, I don’t trust anyone who recommends it because it had literally no features over an already established keyboard like HeliBoard, yet a entire post of evangelists coming out of the woodwork. Makes no sense.
?
I mean I like using FlorisBoard as it has fairly frequent updates. If you enjoy using Heliboard that’s also fair.
Please don’t make this a tribal/team camp thing. Bashing other projects is quite disgusting and offensive especially without any real reason.
Again if you enjoy Heliboard that’s cool, just don’t diss and talk down additional FOSS projects. The FOSS ecosysten is different from the traditional proprietary ecosystem like Microsoft and Oracle.
It was eerie. I’m just telling you what my honest impression was. The thread was “What’s your favorite Android keyboard?” and like 8 of the first 10 comments were for Florisboard, despite it being far behind other keyboards, and I had never even heard of it. It made me feel it was some sort of scam keyboard. It’s similar to a situation where if every YouTube influencer is telling me I need to insall something, that’s a giant red flag. Especially when that thing was objectively worse than other options at the time.
Don’t tell me I can’t comment with my honest experiences.
And here you are touting a feature that other keyboards have had for years.
Yes but the space bar has other functions in gboard so it’s a 50/50 shot if you move 5 chars back or activate a random thing you never want to use.
Swiping on the space bar only moves characters, the faster/longer you swipe, the more characters or words you swipe. There are no other functionalities that overlap or conflict with this
It’s also a language selector.
I have multiple languages on gboard…If you’re too slow with the swipe it will open up the language selection menu. There are a total of three buttons to switch languages
Yes but I miss swipe texting so much.
There is a way to get swipe typing working
Go on…
Settings> Advanced > Load Gesture Typing Library
Easy enough to install, but despite using a closed-source lib from Google, it doesn’t seem to work nearly as well as GBoard. Feels like I have to go back and correct every other word, and it doesn’t seem to choose words contextually or learn from the ones I select.
It gave me the word “Ines” 3 times just now while trying to swipe “ones”. Trying to swipe “pretty” gave me Perry, prey, Peru, petty, piety, pottery, and pet before I gave up and typed it manually (or “toured it nakedly”.)
Back to GBoard for me I think. Unfortunately, I don’t see the benefit of a FOSS keyboard that is forced to use closed-source Google code anyway for an objectively worse experience if you rely on swiping. FlorisBoard says they’re working on their own implementation of “glide typing” that sounds promising, so I’ll be keeping an eye on that.
You have to manually add the swipe typing library it in advanced setting. You can find the library here. https://github.com/erkserkserks/openboard/tree/46fdf2b550035ca69299ce312fa158e7ade36967/app/src/main/jniLibs
Heliboard is basically like florisboard but you can use swipe typing.
Really? Where? I’ve been using Heliboard and i don’t see a swipe-text option.
Heliboard > Gesture Typing
From their github: Glide typing (only with closed source library )
Never heard of floris. Trying it out right now!
It’s a pass for me, due to lack of dictionary. Will keep it installed and try it again, when it’s been added
Oh cool, thanks for sharing this!