Gboard is getting visibly worse almost on a daily basis, especially autocorrecting perfectly legitimate words, presumably based on dubious analysis of other people’s writing. So what’s worth trying? The ability to swipe type is a big plus
I use Fcitx for Android for Japanese typing.
Though, sometimes I still revert to old Mozc Android release, which not updated by Google anymore for more than five years.
I only have Hacker’s Keyboard installed because it’s the only one that’s stupidly simple while also giving a full standard keyboard complete with function keys and whatnot so I have as much control over remote applications as I do messing with them at home on the actual machine with a real keyboard.
No problem at all with Gboard for me. In fact, it’s the only one that can consistently do both German and Japanese for me.
Tbh nothing comes even close to Gboard for me. The layout, the autocorrect, the simplicity, the swipe typing. Everything is perfect.
I’m using AnySoftKeyboard, which is open source and also has swipe controls
Another vote for FUTO keyboard.
Except, the swipe feature really likes to autocorrect to the most outlandish words that haven’t never entered into my vocabulary at any point in my nearly 40 years on this godforsaken planet.
I didn’t realize how bad Samsung keyboard was until now. Id forgotten I never changed it on my phone (I’ve had my phone for like 5 years) , even though I swapped to Gboard on my Samsung watch ages ago.
I use a 2008 HP corporate desktop keyboard, and I have spares. I don’t know why, but it’s been my favorite feeling keyboard for years. I used to rock the old model Ms back in the 90s, but something about that generation of HP keyboard was just pleasing to type on for me. I scored a pile of brand new ones for $5 a piece with mouse from the local gov surp a bunch of years ago.
8vim !
God, the autocorrect is horrible nowadays. Hey Google, team is a fucking word. No, I’m not talking about a team. Fucking figure it out.
Fucking Tram! Case and point.
Been using FUTO FOR A CHILW ANF I DONT UAVE ANY COMPLAINTA REALLY
I’m a swipe typer and I’m sticking with open-board-gesture-typing-v1.4.5.apk, which is some kind of fork of gboard before it went totally off the rails. The only complaint I have about it is that it decided to stop capitalizing “I” for some reason and I haven’t been able to fix it, so I have to hit the suggestion each time.
OpenBoard is discontinued, the last update is from 2022.
Heliboard is continuation fork of OpenBoard, with more updates.
Right, but do I want more updates? This feels like one of those if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it things.
HeliBoard. However for swipe typing it’ll take some practice to get used to, it’s more sensitive to swipe accuracy and you may need to reset your muscle memory.
I need to figure that out one of these days. I forgot to switch back to gboard if I really want to do that. I wish it was as simple as just enabling. But to go look up the procedure and what I need to download.
I’m not sure if you figured it out but for anyone who hasn’t, you download a swipe library for heliboard Here by picking raw and then uploading it to heliboard in advanced settings>load gesture typing library.
No but thank you. It’s just always been one of those things that only occurs to me for some reason when I couldn’t dive into it. “I’m busy, it would be nice to swipe. I should look into that later”. Later i’ve got plenty of time and don’t mind typing regular. It’s like a vicious cycle lol
I did that for a long time. I just had to go back in my comments to find the link to reply to you because I forgot how I did it lmao
Yes i should probably document it just in case as well.
How do you actually enable swipe typing? I have HeliBoard installed, looked through all the options, but it just doesn’t. Pixel 8.
EDIT: It looks like you have to enable a closed-source swipe-typing library in Advanced settings at the bottom: “Load gesture typing library”
I see you already figured it out but for anyone who hasn’t, you download a swipe library for heliboard Here by picking raw and then uploading it to heliboard in advanced settings>load gesture typing library.
FlorisBoard with the Material theme.
Tried many, but FlorisBoard’s bugs bug me the least, not that there are many. The one feature I wanted was password manager autofill bar, FlorisBoard worked the best at the time and has been solid since. Material theme is nice too.

Thanks! Downloading now.
I just wanted to say that, while Heliboard is a hell of a keyboard, I can’t understand why nobody makes something close to keymonk keyboard. I never used a virtual keyboard that could get even close to that.







