Ew
For about a decade now google has been changing shit for no particular reason, this is just the latest.
They learned it from Microsoft.
I haven’t used Microsoft software for 25 years or so, so I don’t have any reference point, but there was a time when Google lead the pack in innovation, that’s no longer the case.
Google lead the way at buying innovation.
Mhm.
Innovate, Dominate, Stagnate, Enshittify.
Classic tech company lifecycle.
Basically, they have nothing else to do, so they just throw shit at the wall to see what sticks.
That’s just their way they keep it alive. If it were actually good, Google would cancel it.
One thing I did notice a while back, was seeing the 2022ish interface for YouTube and Google search and feeling how dated it was, still absolutely usable mind you, just clearly with a design ethos from an older era.
Most the time, I feel that changes Google make are absolutely arbitrary, rounding a button and then squaring it again, but I need to give them credit that there is something more, something about staying at the forefront of GUIs. It’s still all bullshit of course, the old one looks older but is identically useful.
The reason is their internal promotion culture. You cant get promoted without global impact, so buckle up we are changing things so we can get promoted not because it’s better.
That’s got to be the absolute worst KPI I’ve ever heard of.
It’s a KPI you develop in the 00s culture of move fast and break things when the competition is at your heels and you want to be at theirs. You want to be the search engine that made the email client everyone uses otherwise that email client might make a search engine everyone uses…
It was outdated in the mid 10s, and it’s the mid 20s now
God how many things have changed on my phone that I did not ask them to. Changing the font on the clock. Changing the lock screen layout. REMOVING FROGGY WEATHER BEING BACK FROGGY YOU FUCKS.
Marketing and design teams just have to justify their existence. Makes for annoying stupid changes.
Don’t get me started.
Gmail for business has been renamed at least four times.
Google Home changed layout for no particular reason and made everything an extra click away.
Google Assistant removed perfectly working actions, try turning on your A/C at 3am in the morning whilst you’re sleeping.
Android changes navigation modes making everything worse.
Gmail keeps changing its layout.
Google Admin moves sections around for no reason.
Google search returns worse results every week.
Google Gemini is infecting every service.
Google Sites removed simple blogging functionality without any alternative.
Free services for life are now paid.
Google Play moved the search button to the bottom but you still have to tap at the top to type your search, so it’s just an extra click.
It still requires the extra click, but if you hit the search icon again then your keyboard will pop up. So no need to move your finger up top, Spotify’s search has the same setup.
All I want is for gboard to stop hijacking my default keyboard. I set futo for a reason and I meant it.
You could just uninstall it.
wrong
Edit: just noticed it also keeps turning on background mobile data usage dispite me having explicitly disabled that.
Can’t you still remove this stuff via ADB?
yes, you can. I think it was these 2 lines ☞
adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.touchtype.swiftkey
adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.swiftkey.swiftkeyconfigurator
@CubitOom@infosec.pub
Thank you, I will try
Yes, but you shouldn’t.
After a reboot, a lot of phones can only use the device’s default keyboard app for entering the unlock pin/password.
If you’ve removed or disabled it, you can get into a situation where you have no keyboard at all, and a delightful chicken-and-egg situation of needing a keyboard you don’t have until after unlocking the device to enter the code to unlock the device.
(A USB keyboard will let you escape this, for what that’s worth)
I removed (not really, it shows “Not installed for this user” in All apps list) GBoard using Canta and nothing is happening.
That’s weird. What phone and OS? I’ve had to explicitly install it on my phones for as long as I can remember: https://i.imgur.com/8MlcpuK.png
Maybe you have to disable it as a keyboard in settings first?
This is a pixel 8 running stock android 15. There is no option to disable unlike other preinstalled apps.
g what? I only know Heliboard
I like this. But this should be an option.
Reminds me of this
Kinda reminded me of this post
https://feddit.org/post/8032101
Albeit the kerning on those virtual keys are making me all itchy. Horrible horrible implementation from Google yet again when they could’ve done it right.
Circles are the worst possible shape in terms of making efficient use of the limited screen space available on a phone. The screen is rectangular and nearly everything we display falls into rectangular arrangements. Using circles just means there is less room on each key to show useful information, like the long-hold functions.
I’m not opposed to change, but change entirely for the sake of change usually produces bad results.
I’m right there with you. I hate the current trend of rounded corners on everything. I know designers say it is more aesthetically pleasing, but to me it just looks like wasted space.
Depending on what you’re looking at, the goal is rarely to have stuff crammed into every pixel of the screen, at least on products that are well designed
I know that’s rarely the goal, but maybe it should be more of the goal. Sick of every app and webpage having these yawning chasms of useless white space
I use GBoard (yeah I know, it’s just really good, but yes I am aware of the privacy concerns), but I use it without shapes. The letters and hold-characters are just… there, placed around in a qwerty arrangement. No “buttons”, so to say. I hope they don’t remove that functionality.
I wanna switch to FOSS alternatives but swiping is either funky (FUTO) or not available for now (Floris). I ended up downgrading gboard to an older version since all this boat (especially the bitmoji sticker nonsense) really grinds my gears.
Get Heliboard and then download a gesture library such as this: https://github.com/erkserkserks/openboard/blob/master/app/src/main/jniLibs/arm64-v8a/libjni_latinimegoogle.so
Heliboard is on F-Droid.
Thank you so much internet stranger. Just made the switch!
Oh my gosh, I don’t think info like this is found anywhere on the internet, thank you.
Did you try Heliboard? It can be setup to swipe, though I mostly tap type. When i have used the swipe it has worked well though. I have been using it for over a year now and really like it.
The keys are not even the size they are on the screen, what’s getting drawn is just a grid of letters. Touch keyboards are far more complicated than you think.
Yeah. I’m gonna guess this types about the same. This is probally just an aesthetic change for the appearance of being “New!”.
someone in that department is getting a promotion, I bet
FUTO keyboard. Try it. Say bye to gboard.
I periodically try FUTO. It’s a great keyboard, except for its swiping support. That seems to be gradually improving, but it isn’t quite there yet. Unfortunately that is how I do all my typing, so I keep going back to GBoard. I look forward to leaving it for good.
Ahh. I only use it occasionally. I’m bad at spelling and need the word predictions too much.
This has been my issue with every single FOSS keyboard. I can’t live without swipe.
Edit: Forgot you could download a swipe library for heliboard Here by picking raw and then uploading it to heliboard in advanced settings>load gesture typing library.
I have added the swipe library to FUTO. It works, but not well enough for me. (That may be my clumsy swiping, but the issue remains.) I estimate that it gets about one word in four wrong. GBoard is still wrong about one time in ten, but at that rate, swiping and correcting is still much faster for me than traditional typing.
Is it actually called futo? Nothing shows up searching it in fdroid
Yes but I use obsidian not fdroid
Obtanium?
Its another app store. heres futos webpage. https://github.com/futo-org/android-keyboard
I meant is obtanium what you used, think you mixed up that and obsidian the note taking app but found obtanium through futos site
Oh. You’re right. I did get the name mixed up.
Try giving us back a fucking physical keyboard. Touchscreens fucking suck.
I’d really love a modern smartphone with a t9 keypad. I used to be able to type almost as fast on t9 as on a real keyboard. I miss it so much.
There’s an app for that
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.github.sspanak.tt9
It’s not as good as a physical numpad, but it gets the job done
Thanks! The lack of a tactile board is a lot of the problem though
I disagree, but to each their own. You do have a potential option here:
Late-stage tech bros, devoid of innovation and flailing at their precious cup game.
I’m so over this garbage. RIP smartphones.
I’m using Yandex Keyboard #FuckGoogle
Using a Yandex product is hardly better than using something from Google.
I’m aware, but I like how Yandex Keyboard looks. FOSS alternatives aren’t that pretty, at least for me.
Futo with amoled dark purple theme is actually slick as hell imo
Looks awful
