I use Gboard, as I’m on Android.
Do you use Gboard or the clipboard feature? Or use a similar feature of an other keyboard app?
Do you use apps like NetGuard or TrackerControl to restrict net access to the keyboard apps?
Have tried some FOSS apps some years ago, but didn’t stay on them because, Malayalam(my mother tongue) and the handwriting mode(which is quite good), is not available in most other apps.
I had thought about turning on the clipboard history option and am thinking about the privacy/security aspect behind it. As per Gboard, it remembers history for 1 hour and there seems to be no sync option. So it seems sort-of safe. Thinking about such things since I do copy-paste OTP’s.
I use FlorisBoard for pure functionality.
- I’ve been working with an odd app where you type at length but the message gets eaten sometimes. So I follow up everything with instant hits of the select-all + copy buttons
- I find the < and > arrows to navigate text much more ergonomic than holding on space to edge around, especially for long strings (webpage forms lol)
- Private clipboard is a measurable peace of mind. Had a heart attack when a private SSH key got autosuggested on the stock keyboard. Not sure if it ever gets TLS transferred anywhere though, e.g. for autocorrect training.
I do switch back to the stock keyboard for emoji search though.
Also a florisboard user! Just patiently awaiting them to re-add glide typing
I use HeliBoard because I have to switch between 5 languages (German, Polish, English, Swedish and Korean) constantly and it does it for the most part (other than the korean) automatically for me.
I didn’t think of clipboard history yet, but I know that Keepass2Android deletes the copied passwords after a while, that’s kind of good enough for me.
It seems with Heliboard you have to switch between languages rather than having it detected automatically. It also doesn’t support swiping so not really a replacement for Swiftkey yet, for me at least.
You set up which languages you want to have there and then it switches between them when you just start writing automatically.
I just tried it again but for me it doesn’t switch automatically. It’s quite annoying since I often write local addresses etc between English sentences
Go to https://github.com/Helium314/HeliBoard/wiki/FAQ search for Multilingual typing and follow how to set it up.
If the language doesn’t use the Latin alphabet then it won’t work, like for me with Korean.
I just use defaults.
Because the idea is, if my phone’s manfacturer wanted to spy on me, they could do so regardless of what keyboard I use.
I use a samsung phone so its just the samsung default keyboard. I do go to settjngs and turn off any telemetry stuff and just have to hope they aren’t lying when I turn off telemetry stuff.
I do use clipboard history, but if I ever copy a password or some sensitive data, I have an app that I can use afterwards that overwrites the clipboard data with random data.
But most of the time, never really need to copy passwords since I use bitwarden and it directly inputs passwords, bypassing the clipboard history completely.
Also OTPs are one time only so doesn’t really matter if they get leaked.
Thank you.
Because the idea is, if my phone’s manfacturer wanted to spy on me, they could do so regardless of what keyboard I use
I use a Chinese smartphone. And use GBoard on it.
I turn off the telemetry stuff too.My concern was me enabling clipboard history maybe taken as consent to send to some online server for sync/backup or later use.
Wanted to know what other people were doing about such risks.App to overwrite clipboard
Cool. What is that?
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.paranoiaworks.unicus.android.sse/
Its main function is not the clipboard cleaner, but its an open source app for encrypting files/folders or just text. The text encryption is quite interesting, since unlike a txt file, you can send encrypted ciphertext over sms messaging. There’s also a way to hide a string of text in a photo. It’s just a cool app I just kinda have on my phone, but I found the overwrite clipboard function be quite useful on its own. Its under “Other Utilities”>“Clipboard Cleaner”
I laugh that the app from my bank throws an error saying all third-party keyboards are malware & unsafe.
I use AnySoftKeyboard still since it has a ton of keyboards & features (tho autocorrect needs improvements).
since I do copy OTP’s
OTPs*
Yep. Will edit that
I only use FOSS ones. I hop between florisboard and unexpected keyboard, and I gave heliboard a shot again recently because it has the swipe/glide typing but I couldn’t stick with it because I was missing other features, so I’m back on floris.
Since I only use open source keyboards, I’m not really concerned about privacy…so no blocking of internet access.
I also thought about trying out the clipboard history, and also am wondering if it’s safe…
If you want to try FOSS keyboard again, HeliBoard is your best bet.
Thank you.
Will look into Heliboard. Does it have a Handwriting mode?Unfortunately no.
I don’t think there is a FOSS one that supports it.I have Heliboard and it works great.
Not sure if it’s different but I use swipe on it and I love it.
Florisboard but it may or may not have your language.
I think it is configured so that you can add languages tho
I use Gboard and I absolutely loathe it. It constantly suggests words that are not words, and if I remove them, they don’t actually get removed. I’m constantly minimizing the keyboard or recording audio and I have no clue how. I have yet to find anything better
What else have you tried?
Ms swift key and some others. After half a dozen I just kind of gave up. After going through this thread I am now trying out heliboard. But it also suggests gibberish.
Oh boy, where do I start. FOSS mostly
- 8Vim - when I’m drunk or moving a lot
- DotDash - when I wan’t to write with morse code just for fun.
- Hackers keyboard - for SSH terminal stuff
- Unexpected keyboard - for SSH terminal stuff and when I need a lot of special characters.
- Thumb-key - when I really have only one hand to write
- Traditional T9 - when I write English and want a good auto-complete.
- Kboard - for my kamoji needs and often reoccurring short messages.
FUTO keyboard. It has the best swipe-typing and voice to text out of all source-viewable ones. (Not fully open source due to the license)
For reference, here is the license. I’m curious which part makes it “not fully open source”.
First realize what is being talked about is the generally agreed upon open source definition https://opensource.org/osd
While it seems they have simplified the license removing some reasons it’s not to be considered open source, it’s still restricting commercial uses in the following two restrictions:
"You may distribute the software or provide it to others only if you do so free of charge for non-commercial purposes.
Notwithstanding the above, you may not remove or obscure any functionality in the software related to payment to the Licensor in any copy you distribute to others."
In short open source would only require the software be distributed with source under the same licensed as recieved, thus can’t restrict it to non-commercial, nor prevent the changing of payment details.
Obviously it’s a reasonably permissive license, and possibly won’t impact you from using it as an end user. It’s just has some restrictions for the creators to request payment, and to prevent third parties profiting off the product. Think Creative Commons, share alike, non-commercial for software. (While most will consider this fair its not quite fully open)
One reason they went this route was to prevent third parties form distributing their software with ads and using it in systems they are actively attempting to provide alternatives for (ie software that may spy on your system useage/and call home) the non-commercial clause has more teeth than say MIT where it would be relicensed, or GPL that while the software source would need to be provided might still be embedded in a ecosystem.
Gotcha.
Yeah, it sounds like it’s not “open source” according to a specific definition set by the OSI. But the term “open source” has grown beyond what they believe it to mean, and the FUTO license seems more than reasonable to me.
I think the freedom to commercialize worked in the past, but we now live in a time of weaponized commercialization, especially in the mobile world. It seems reasonable to me for them to want to ensure their code is not commercialized in ways that are antithetical to the purpose of the project.
So the open source community has a very clearly defined definition of “open” - open does not mean that you can just read the source code. Just reading helps with some trustworthiness, but in order to be afforded all of the protections and benefits of the word “open”, they require some form of ability to fork the code, and to be able to do useful things with that fork. No fork = not open. There are a ton of good reasons for this that I won’t dig into here but you can certainly find by looking up the free software foundation or the open source initiative.
Futo is considered “source available”
I don’t see anything wrong with limiting the commercialization of your code. I don’t agree that limiting someone from monetizing your code in a way you disagree with precludes them from “doing useful things” with a fork. Equating usefulness with commercialization seems implicitly capitalist and antithetical to FOSS. CMV.
There’s nothing wrong per se with what FUTO is doing. They have the right to determine how people can use their code. What is wrong is trying to use the term “open source” which has a very clear meaning to try and win marketing brownie points among its user base when it does not actually follow that definition. It is misleading at best.
Basically: don’t misuse the open source moniker for source-available projects.
The more accurate way to say that is, “open source” has a very clear meaning to a very specific set of people who agree with OSI’s definition. But language evolves, they don’t have a copyright on the term, more people have heard the term “open source” than have heard about the OSI, so “open source” means whatever most people believe it to mean.
Velcro can be upset when people call competitors’ hook-and-loop technology Velcro, but the rest of the world don’t even know they exist.
And philosophically, I think it’s time OSI updates their definition to fit the times. As stated above, I think the guarantee of unfettered commercialization is antithetical to FOSS goals. And again, I’d be glad to be convinced otherwise.
The whole point of forkability is NOT for unfettered commercialization, it is a user protection. I as a user should be able to take any piece of software and modify it in any way I see fit, and then be able to contribute that back.
If you think that the OSI’s definition has anything to do with commercialization (other than explicitly saying that commercializing source code is not prohibited), you have completely misunderstood what open source is about, full stop.
I apologize, I got your comment confused with the other person’s who said the ability to commercialize is the important detail FUTO’s license is missing. You had said, “they require some form of ability to fork the code, and to be able to do useful things with that fork” which the FUTO license does already explicitly allow, so I assumed by “and do useful things” you also meant “commercialize”.
So yeah it sounds like we’re in agreement, and the FUTO license is already reasonably “open source”.
You have to be able to redistribute commercially, but the FUTO license only allows non-commercially.
This has no effect on us users so it is essentially just as good as open source, but technically it is not open source.
Thumbkey, Samsung built in when I need a gif.
I use Gboard because of it’s customizability. I like adding words to the dictionary to make it easier to type usernames. Gboard lets you pin things so you can save for more than one hour. Never copy OTPs, always type them manually.
FUTO keyboard
Just installed it today. Significantly improved voice typing over Google and its processed locally on your device, not server side like everything Google.
Fossify Keyboard
Enough for my needs. No autocorrect function, which helps me practice my written English. The clipboard function is interesting, as it allows for instant copied text or fixed text, but I seldom use it.
