I’m looking to replace gboard and I have spent about a decade using gesture based typing. Is there any alternative that is private that gesture based typing actually work on?

4 points
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Futo Keyboard has built in Swype functionality.

Heliboard also has it, but I believe you do have to download Google’s swype libraries to use the functionality. Whether that affects privacy, I don’t know.

Edit: (See calm.like.a.bomb’s comment below)

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How do I get the gboard Swype library I can’t find the tiny download Button. Helio that is

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Try this page. You have to go in to the folder that corresponds to your device, the above link takes you to the Arm chipset code which should be good for a mobile android device. You should see the raw button in the right hand corner, and the download button should be near it as well. If you’re on mobile, tap the three dots and the download button should show up in the menu.

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1 point

Nothing can replace the original Swype for me. I want something new, but all alternatives are deficient

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As a Heliboard enthusiast and pretty happy with it, I would like to ask you what you find wrong with it, what you miss from the original ?

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One of the biggest thing is the actual swipe detection success rate - I have tried heli and others and I find that you need to swipe slower and more precisely for words to register. Also, when wrong word is detected, Swype will typically have the right word suggested in bar above keyboard for a one tap correction, not the case for me on others where no word is often the wrong word is suggested to correct. For example, almost like some of them suggest too literally and lack context - this is tough to describe, so bear worth me, so I try to swipe the word “she” let’s say, and the board detects “the” and the suggested words to correct have more of a relationship to “the”, so think “then” “them” “theirs” maybe, but the logic isn’t starting with other derivations of three letter words ending with “he” that have relevant letters near the “T” on a qwerty keyboard (which Swype feels less likely to do in my experience).

Otherwise, there are customizing options and other UI choices that I prefer with Swype. It’s definitely gotten worse over the years since it stopped being actively supported, but I’m so glad it’s still functional in some capacity. I wish everyone with FOSS skill would really deep to replicate the Swype experience with the APKs still floating around.

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Many only support a few languages.

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HeliBoard but the problem is that you have to download google swipe librairies…

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This works just as well as gboard!

Open source or not, my question is, is my typing data consumed by Google in this context? I’m not an expert in the realm of android libraries and their connectivity or lack thereof, but I’m fine with using a closed source library knowing the data stays on my device.

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Try to use something like TC (TrackerControl) to restrict the internet connectivity of the app once libraries downloaded.

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