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Comment by nimbius | Hacker News Reader

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dslul.open...

OpenBoard is a 100% foss keyboard based on AOSP, with no dependency on Google binaries, that respects your privacy.

Thanks for this, just installed it and when I click to enable in my settings, I get an Attention message:

"OpenBoard may be able to collect all the text you type, including personal data such as passwords and credit card numbers"

This appears to be from Samsung, trying to deter users from using keyboards other than their own.

That's a generic warning that shows up on all flavors of Android, including AOSP and LineageOS, when you enable any new input method.

I'm glad they let people know it's possible, a keyboard isn't something you should install without some careful consideration because they can be used as keyloggers. I just wish they'd been as clear about that with the keyboard already installed on the phones when they ship. Anyone seeing that warning might easily think it's safer not to replace their stock keyboard even though it's already doing the very thing they fear a new keyboard might do.

> a keyboard isn't something you should install without some careful consideration because they can be used as keyloggers

To be frank, Android should not allow input methods access to internet/filesystem in the first place. But that would have hindered Google's own keylogger, so...

I use Google Pinyin Input. (Which seems to have been deprioritized or something, but still...)

The general shape of input methods that let you produce 汉字 is that you provide some type of input that hints at the character(s) you want, the input method displays a menu of options that match your input, and you select the correct option from the menu. For example, if I'm using pinyin entry and I type `shi`, I can choose from 是, 时, 事, 使, 试, 世, 市, 十, 式, 师, 石, 室, ......, which are all pronounced shi. (And heck, those are just the top 12 suggestions. They mean things like "ten", "be", or "stone". The `shi`s go on for several pages.)

You can enter more than one character at once. If I type `bhys`, I'll see the suggestion 不好意思 ("sorry").

The presented options are chosen based on what the input method predicts I'm most likely to want. They are context-sensitive -- the order of suggestions will change depending on what I typed just beforehand -- and the likelihoods and the phrases are collected from what people elsewhere in the world type. Suggestions can be quite current! Without an internet connection, this would be a much worse experience; the predictions would be wrong or useless much, much more often.

It wouldn't be as bad as you might think without prediction - back in the days with "dumb" input method, the word choices would be listed by frequency of use, and you'd remember which choice the word you want would be.

So you'd type shi and click the first choice for 是, second choice for 时, etc without even needing to read the options since they'll always be in that slot. If there's a word you use frequently but is listed late in the list you can change that in the settings file. Same for shortcuts like bhys and you can always add your own shortcut.

The Chinese keyboard I use does not have internet access and only does prediction based on set phrases - eg if you type 时 it'd offer 間, 代, 事, 空 etc; if you type tmd it'd give you you-know-what, and I prefer it over the Google keyboard since my muscle memory can do most of the work instead of my eyes.

Once I realized what samsung was doing I switched to AnySoftKeyboard and I'm pretty happy with it. It's got a lot of options.

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.menny.android.anysoftkey...

One may replace the keyboard, but the underlying "input method" framework is still under OEM's (in this case, Samsung's) control: That is (afaik), they could key-log just fine regardless of whatever keyboard one may install / use.

I've tried both anysoftkeyboard and openboard, and liked openboard layout better but wanted swiftkey like support from anysoftkeyboard. Looking at reddit fossdroid I discovered the one fitted me better as a closer to openboard with swiftkey support : FlorisBoard

FlorisBoard is really nice. Among all of the FOSS Android keyboards, I've found the gesture typing on FlorisBoard to be the most accurate.

https://github.com/florisboard/florisboard

Thanks, I'll check that out.

I've been using Swiftkey since before Microsoft bought it, and really enjoying it.

I know I shouldn't be surprised but I feel really betrayed that they use it to track app usage and link it to IMEI and the Google advertising id.

I was also a long-time fan of Swiftkey, and switched to OpenBoard a few months ago. The main differences are lack of swipe input which I miss dearly, and slightly less intuitive correction. I think since switching I've put a little more effort into being more accurate which has helped.

FlorisBoard is another open source keyboard project that has experimental support for gesture/swipe typing. It requires a bit more accuracy than spyware keyboards but might be worth a try.

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/dev.patrickgold.florisboard/

Alternatively, you can just disable internet access to any of the keyboards via 'Settings' > 'Apps and notifications'.

Looked promising until I noticed that Japanese isn't an option (despite practically every other language being listed).

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