Show HN: Keyboards Club | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Keyboards Club

keyboards.club

56 pointsahmetsulek50 comments

No love for the Hacker's Keyboard (Android)? It's invaluably helpful for sending ASCII Control characters (when on an SSH session, for instance).

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

If you like another keyboard but need the functionality that Hacker's Keyboard provides, you can try JuiceSSH, which augments any keyboard with control characteres, function keys, etc.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sonelli.ju...

I use that as my main keyboard. I've tried other, "smarter" keyboards with auto-correct and predictions, but I find I am actually slower with them.

Anybody else uncomfortable with the fact that these drop-in keyboard replacements are effectively sanctioned keyloggers that send keystrokes to a remote server?

When you turn them on, Android will even warn you of that possibility. SwiftKey has some sort of cloud (opt-in) feature[1] so it's a keylogger with benefits.

[1] http://swiftkey.com/en/more-about-cloud/

Apple doesn't allow third party keyboards when you're using a password field, so someone is thinking of it.

Password fields are not the only sensitive data inputs.

I occasionally get uncomfortable with this. I had an eerie experience with SwiftKey on Android a few months ago where I was sending someone my bank account details over SMS (I know, I know) so they could wire me some money, and I typed

"My bank account number is"

And the next suggested word from my keyboard was my actual bank account number. Same thing happened with my sort code. I guess I sent my details to someone a few months before and it just remembered the info.

Other than that slight "oh crap" moment though, the fact it listens to and remembers everything I write comes in super handy. Turns out I use the same few phrases a lot more than I thought I did, and swiping away at my keyboard, and having it predict my next word quickly and accurately saves me SO much time.

By default, iOS keyboards cannot interact with other parts of the app/their container app, and cannot send information over the network. [1][2][3]

If you do enable full access, then yep, anything is fair game. But that's a tradeoff users can make.

[1] - https://twitter.com/SwiftKey/status/514540356918972416

[2] - http://swiftkey.com/en/blog/swiftkey-require-full-access/

[3] - https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/Genera...

It doesn't appear that SwiftKey allows for swiping across the keyboard unless you give it full access. I just installed it and then removed it because of this.

This is the primary reason that I chose swype over swiftkey on iOS. It doesn't require internet access, so as far as I understand it, all my keystrokes are completely sandboxed inside it.

No way I'm agreeing to have everything I type transmitted to a third party.

Can anyone elaborate on this (or at least confirm)?

I can deal with "remote keylogger" _if_ I feel I can trust the business (however ill-defined that may be). Real sore point is ye ole NSA/FBI/whoever being able to demand/siphon that data, so on-device sandboxing is much preferred.

SwiftKey is pretty neat, but may switch to Swype once I'm convinced it's worth the few bucks for a local secure sandbox.

I have more practical concerns. I might "trust" the company not to abuse or sell my data - but do I trust that they are actually competent enough to secure it? It is abuse by hackers which gain access to the data that I am worried about.

For Android, I really like SwiftKey, and have been using it for years. Its predictions are very accurate and it (un)learns very quickly.

But since the last updates (maybe when they added emojis? I'm not sure) it has become laggy and unresponsive, sometimes I end typing a phrase and have to wait several seconds while I see the text painfully appearing one letter at a time in the screen. Also there is a period of 1-2 seconds after I send a message when I can't press any key, as it will be ignored. I don't use Flow.

However, it has something that I can't find in any other keyboard: two simultaneous languages. Every keyboard allows to select several languages and change between them, but in SwiftKey they work at the same time and you can use both seamlessly, and for me that's irreplaceable.

Swype supports two simultaneous languages.

Well that's new, it didn't before! I'm going to check it right now, thank you.

Suggested name: Virtual Keyboards Club.

Ssssh! Nobody talks about Keyboards Club!

Agreed, I was expecting a discussion about mechanical keyboards

so was I. I click the link expecting to find another click clack community.

Slightly OT: I installed SwiftKey (currently the top option under iOS on this website), and I really like the concept (would at least like to try it out, even though I've developed a pretty good proficiency with two-thumb typing), but I don't like the fact that it's hard to re-do/correct the last word. I can either type slowly, which defeats the point of the keyboard, or type quickly and have to do the slow process of backspacing the last word and re-swiping it (which slows you down a lot).

Is there some magic gesture I'm missing, or is there a different third-party keyboard that has a similar idea but is better in this regard? I'm tempted to pay the $1 for Swype but I don't want to bother to do that and then discover it has similar problems.

With Swype (my favourite), a single backspace deletes a word you just typed. Alternatively, you can select a correction of the word from the correction bar.

I don't know about the iOS version, but on Swiftkey on Android swiping your finger from right to left across the whole keyboard deletes the previous word.

I'm using the ordinary typing mode though. I don't know if this works if you have the Flow mode enabled.

It doesn't, but a long press on the delete key deletes words at a time, accelerating as long as you keep pressing.

You should try fleksy. It's what I currently use after running into the same issue you mentioned. Fleksy let's you swipe up and down to scroll through the list of suggested words, so if the keyboard ends up picking the wrong word based on your input, putting "passing" instead of "padding" say, you are one flick away from having the correct word instead of having to delete the entire word and retype it again, hoping that the keyboard picks the right completion this time.

I have tried all of the keyboards on the list for Android, and it's because of this swipe feature that I can't use anything else.

Hey all, we make one of the keyboards on the list, Minuum. It has been really fun to see the iOS community jumping on to third party keyboards so whole-heartedly.

I'm curious, since I've never really asked the HN community about this: what do hackers look for in a virtual keyboard? We all have strong opinions on optimizing our hardware keyboards, (I suspect HN has one of the highest proportions of DVORAK users out there) but I've seen less debate for soft keyboards.

Software keyboards have the potential to be much more flexible and customizable than hardware ones, is this something that we want or need? Is lack of a good coding keyboard the thing that stops us from really writing code on a tablet?

Minuum is great, one of the first I downloaded for iOS8. One thing that I would like to see more of is text expansion. Apple's stock keyboard has it but I don't think I've seen it in 3rd party keyboards. I also really like gestures if they are implemented correctly

Slightly off topic but I have been less than impressed with iOS 3rd-party keyboards compared to their Android counterparts. I noticed they take a bit longer to load and are really inconsistent on when they load. Open AppA, get stock. Open AppB, get Swiftkey. etc. On my wife's iPhone 5 she just wouldn't get a keyboard at all sometimes.

You might want to replace the screenshots of the Android keyboards - you're using the screenshots of the cross-platform keyboards running on iOS devices, and they look different when running on Android devices.

PerfectKeyboard for Android? I use it daily thanks to the T9 layout (not sure if that's the correct name for it, but the old Nokia style phonepad layout)

Am I the only one uncomfortabke with a third party managing my keyboard? I wish Android had a sane security policy for keyboard controls but they don't.

By definition it must be able to see your keystrokes. What sort of policy are you looking for? I guess you could deny them internet access on a more granular level, but otherwise, it seems like they need pretty terrifying permissions to even work.

You can always install XPrivacy and deny them everything. It's not a solution for the average user, though.

Why is it that iOS8 already has more fun and quirky keyboards?

Android keyboards have been around for much longer and you'd expect them to be more competitive surely.

You want your keyboard to be fun and quirky?

Because the guy who wrote this website is an iOS junkie?

I was going to note that 8pen[1] was left out of the Android list, but it doesn't appear to be on the Play Store right now. According to their website they are working on a new version.

[1] http://www.8pen.com/

Most of the iOS ones have been on Android for a long time. Obviously, it's easy to get yourself up to speed on the new platform when you've already done all the R&D and just need to do a port.

Ahmetsulek... the website link for TextExpander goes to the wrong website... and there is no way to contact you on the site. Awesome.

I have been using SwiftKey for like 15 minutes now and it is amazing! I don't know how I missed it. Where was HN?

There's an Apple Store download 'TouchPal' on the Android page. I like the minimalist design.

thanks! fixed it..

Might want to add pricing information.

true, I can mark the free ones, thanks!

Some come in 2 version, free & priced, eg Swype which you currently link only with the paid version

And whether they require full access on iOS.

Give me a keyboard that allows be to efficiently type in two languages with autocorrect,and I am sold.

I'm waiting for something like Hacker Keyboard for iOs. It is very useful on my Android device.

Hacker Keyboard is my favorite keyboard on Android. I only wish it had swipe support but it seems the developer has abandoned the project.

It would be helpful if the SwiftKey video (iOS) actually demonstrated the keyboard.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com