by crazygringo
10 subcomments
- I love swiping for speed, because it's usually faster than tapping and easy to do one-handed, but then there are always a bunch of words that are too similar that it can never get right, it doesn't deal well with doubled vs single letters, etc.
So for the longest time, I've wanted a new keyboard layout specifically designed for swiping. In the same way that Dvorak was optimized for ergonomically typing English words, I want a keyboard layout designed to minimize word overlap/ambiguity when swiping.
It doesn't even necessarily have to have 26 keys, e.g. maybe there could be one key overloaded for v/w/x/z (and you long-press it if you ever want to type a single letter). On the other hand, maybe there need to be separate keys for 'e' and 'ee', or a special key for "double the previous letter".
Because I love swiping, but all my problems with it come from the fact that the QWERTY layout is far from ideal for it. I am 100% willing to learn a new layout if anyone will develop an optimal one for English so that swiping has a 99.9% accuracy rate instead of what currently feels more like 90% or 95%.
- I've been using this keyboard on and off for a while now. I've always switched back to gboard, however this update made me convert full time. It's really good.
There are a few issues, like it randomly capitalizes words in the middle of sentences. Also, it doesn't seem to take context into account when suggesting words, so words that clearly wouldn't follow the last word will often show up.
It's not as good as gboard yet, but close enough that I'm going to stick with it.
Note that if you have a more powerful device, you can get larger models for voice and larger dictionaries from their site. They make a noticeable difference.
The only fundamental issue I have with it, they seem to be ideologically opposed to adding a GIF search, which I miss occasionally. https://github.com/futo-org/android-keyboard/issues/293#issu...
- Awesome. I've been using FUTO keyboard for two years now and it's the best free & private keyboard I found, but swiping has been really bad for all these keyboards which was such a pain because I use swiping a lot.
Nice to see the hour of swiping I did adding to their dataset actually helped. I'm using it now and it feels as good as the Google keyboard.
Edit: It is sending me a little that it keeps swiping "whats" instead of "what's" though, hopefully they fix that later.
- For anyone wondering: the library uses the GPLv3 (good) while the Android keyboard uses the Futo License (shit).
- https://gitlab.futo.org/keyboard/swipe-library/-/blob/master...
- https://github.com/futo-org/android-keyboard/blob/master/LIC...
- Fun fact for the first apple keyboard layout on the first iphone, the touchscreen hadn't the resolution to tell appart which letter you meant to type in, so it changed dynamically the "hitboxes" of the letter buttons when you typed a certain letter. (for instance if you typed the letter "i", the hitbox of "t", and "n" were changed to be bigger, because there is a high probability you were hitting those next. Here is an article that talks about it : https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/26/creation-of-the-first-iphone...
by dhruvbird
1 subcomments
- Very cool. I'm a big fan of swipe. So much so that a bunch of us a Grammarly re-implemented it using a similar technique about 2 years ago on the Grammarly iOS keyboard, so if you want to experience something similar on iOS, you can head to the app store https://apps.apple.com/us/app/grammarly-ai-keyboard-notes/id... and use the qwerty english keyboard layout to get this neural net version of swipe.
See https://www.grammarly.com/blog/engineering/deep-learning-swi... for more details - it's very similar to the architecture described by the FUTO folks.
One key difference is that the learned model does not decode in a context sensitive manner but does it a word at a time. The main reason is because we wanted to release this soon and wanted the user's personal dictionary (i.e. contact names, etc... to show up correctly when swiped). It would have been nice if we could have followed through with the context sensitive decoding as described by the FUTO folks. It would really help with accuracy when dealing with words like:
1. (food, good, hood)
2. (you, toy, rot)
3. (our, or, it)
etc...
(Disclaimer: I am one of the authors of the Grammarly swipe system as described in the linked blog post).
by Vingdoloras
5 subcomments
- After experiencing Nintype on iOS many years ago, I can't use any other swipe keyboard anymore. I'm stuck using the stock keyboard for typing, and sometimes (rarely) swiping a word or two when I din't have two hands available. Swiping (with one finger) when holding my phone with both hands just feels unnatural and sluggish. I wish Apple had just bought/sherlocked Nintype and integrated it into the stock keyboard.
- Futo with the new swipe model is the first android keyboard i've used that I don't feel like i'm compromising vs GBoard.
Integrated speak to text, good autocorrect typing, good autocorrect swiping.
by functionmouse
0 subcomment
- edit: NOT guaranteed to be free and open! seems to have a confusing license setup. Boooo! Works good though, I'll take it over Gboard.
This is such a massive deal. This is, as far as I can tell, the first useful free and open Swipe model. This paves the way for things like swipe typing on platforms other than iOS and Android, a major pain point to newcomer OSes.
by kstenerud
3 subcomments
- What I really want is a swipe model that can tune to multiple languages simultaneously when a keyboard layout can support it (English + German, German + French, etc). I rarely need more than 2 languages simultaneously, but the "switching between 2 languages" point is painful.
- swype was so good before it got destroyed by Nuance. Gboard's own swipe to type is decent but missing a lot of those features that made swype so much better (swipe once backwards to erase the previous word, loop a letter to double it, swipe up to the suggested word to select it, correct a previous word with the next few words context...)
by vulkoingim
1 subcomments
- That's neat! Would love to try it, but am also on iOS :/
With the risk of sounding like a broken record - what are people using on iOS? I've been using `SwiftKey` for a while as it has dictionaries for languages that the native keyboard doesn't have. But I would love to switch to something else, as M$ has been shoving AI features on it that I am definitely not interested in.
So far in this thread I've seen Grammarly and Nintype. The former seems to suffer from the same things as SwiftKey, while the latter doesn't look it's maintained (last update 7y ago). I don't mind a paid app, as long as it doesn't invade my privacy.
by sholladay
2 subcomments
- This keyboard seems to ship with a dictionary that includes a lot of curse words. No more ducking around.
- Great timing given I just installed SwiftKey since Microsoft has started embedding ads and dark pattern redirects to Bing!
- For us sad iOS people, what's your favorite swiping keyboard? I just use the stock Apple one because custom keyboards can still be a little buggy (eg not loading occasionally).
- I'm curious to see how it deals with dual languages - ie. not switching between them, but using two languages in the same sentence like the google keyboard supports out of the box.
my biggest issue is that i make up a lot of words as i type and the google dictionary for icelandic is .. well it can never be fully complete because of the way the language works, so dictionary words are always a mess.
by PennRobotics
0 subcomment
- Gboard has been messing with the emoji search recently. It is worse.
Previously, if you type "fac" or "face" or "facep" or "facepa" or "palm" in the search box, you'd get the facepalm emoji among the results. Inexplicably, now the lying emoji, bacon, fondue are shown when you type "fac" but not the classic facepalm. It is only after you type "facepal" that the facepalm emoji appears in the results, which is a major... facepalm for the Gboard team.
As a parent, I need to _constantly_ send the facepalm emoji to my partner, so I noticed immediately when it recently changed. I think they're now trying to account for multiple languages, misspellings, a larger list of synonyms that allows partial matches, sentiment/meaning/synonyms, etc. In any case, I've always felt like emojis should be weighted by overall usage patterns (I have never used the fondue emoji and don't know anyone who does) and now they need a better search trie, where the facepalm emoji is in the top results of "fac".
- Voice dictation is so much better than GBoard, which I've been using until now. It capitalizes and punctuates sentences without me needing to, and got several sentences perfect without any post-editing needed, and it's all a local model. The one downside is no real-time update, just batch conversion once you're done talking. Looks like they've fixed the swipe backspace and spacebar to not be over-sensitive like it was a year or two ago when I last tried (and allowed some customization).
- FUTO has gone from tolerable to pretty great over the past year-ish. Sure, the (english) auto-completion still may not be the "best," but I generally find it better than my iPad auto-completion. Thou, my fav-features are pretty simple: the ability to pin dedicated action buttons like undo/redo/select-all, and direct control over my clipboard history. The clipboard does come with hard max limits of 100 items and 336 hours, but since FUTO is open-source, all one has to do is clone, patch, compile, and voila, unlimited clipboard history! And they say dreams don't come true.
- It would be nice if there was a swipe typing keyboard that was similar to Chinese/Japanese IMEs where you can swipe out a full phrase and the keyboard can use it to fix short/ambiguous words based on context. Today, when I'm swipe typing sloppily, it can be hard to distinguish between pairs like on/in, of/if/I'd, it's/its, etc
- As a FUTO keyboard user for about a year I'm quite excited for this!
Their local voice transcription is top notch and proper swipe gestures would be icing on the cake.
Now to fix that issue there tapping "Tuesd" sometimes suggests "Thursday"
by RandyOrion
0 subcomment
- I've been using FUTO voice input for several month. It's not perfect as I have to manually do the correction like always. However, it definitely saves me some time and effort. It also helps me to degoogle, starting from gboard.
Apparently this new swipe function is tied to FUTO keyboard. I don't use the FUTO keyboard as there is no support for the language I use intensively. Nevertheless, this line of work deserves more recognition.
- I always liked their voice dictation because it's better than Samsungs or Googles while it's on device. It's super fast and puts in punctuation in, etc.
The keyboard on the other hand I never really liked for some reason which I can't even explain clearly. So for the keyboard I've been using https://github.com/HeliBorg/HeliBoard for ever, but it does not have sviping.
I might try FUTO Swipe just to test it.
- This is amazing! It's driven me nuts for a very long time that so many mobile keyboards allow totally non-sequitur nonsensical sequence completions.
In particular, if you end up using the voice input mode of it and have trouble with accuracy, I would giving a try to the biggest model that it supports. It's slower (although really not bad at all on my Galaxy Fold), but it's so nice to have it actually be as accurate as it is.
by satvikpendem
0 subcomment
- Very cool, I use swipe typing almost exclusively so good to see open models. It just needs to preserve word history for custom words, not sure if it does that.
- Ah nice they do have a VR demo https://swipe.futo.tech/vr-swipe-small.mp4 ... now I'm wondering if there is a WASM version so that it can be used in WebXR.
- Thanks for making this privacy-forward. I had been using Heliboard and then a kludge to get another language they don't support via Simple keyboard. It worked well as a workaround, and then an update last week broke my workaround.
Futo just has all the languages I need, and does a better job with EN swipe than Heliboard. 100% convert. Plus, learning about Clearflow is a game changer.
by spicyusername
0 subcomment
- Love swipe typing. Nice to see more keyboards in the space.
by ErikGulliksen
0 subcomment
- I started using the main FUTO keyboard after seeing it mentioned here the other week.
Then a few days later I tried to open my HSBC banking app and it refused to open because it detected FUTO keyboard which it treated as an insecure application, so had to remove FUTO after a couple of days of use.
- This is great! As someone with one thumb that can't bend at either joint and another that doesn't bend well I've been a single finger typer on my phone. Thanks to all involved for this privacy respecting swipe keyboard!
- I've been using the new swipe for a few days and it's truly excellent.
- Finally! Usable! Between this and the excellent dictation, it's finally looking good enough that I can probably recommend it to anyone.
by skeledrew
1 subcomments
- I've been using HeliBoard for a while now, but IIRC the swipe library it uses is from Google (have to install it separately to comply with license). Wonder how this stacks up.
by madspindel
5 subcomments
- Must say it's a little bit lame that they are boycotting iOS. I will not change phone just to use this app but it would be nice to be able to replace SwiftKey with this.
- Swiping feels a bit more accurate than Gboard overall. I'm not seeing a way to add a word to the dictionary. Am I missing something?
- Would love an iOS version! The keyboard landscape on iOS is grim, and gboard hasn't received updates in years.
- If this can learn my patterns, that itself is enough.
Google Keyboard used to do this, but mysteriously doesn't do it anymore.
by backscratches
1 subcomments
- Can it do two finger swipe like Heliboard? Must have feature for modern swipe keyboard
by farhanhubble
0 subcomment
- Absolutely cool demo. I used to love this feature in SwiftKey. It still works but after their acquisition by Microsoft they've gone downhill. I've since switched to iOS but would love to try Futo out when it's available for iOS
- On the one hand snapping to the nearest English word is useful. On the other hand it will prevent our language from evolving.
- Lots to be desired, unfortunately. I tried 3 different words. It nailed the first 2 but the third was impossible: The word "serverside" is impossible to swipe. I tried 10x, never did it even come close.
by smusamashah
0 subcomment
- Looking at the example videos, specially the VR one, I can't help but think that this gives every word its own unique shape. For example, the word "model" got shape matching infinity symbol.
- Sounds good but the big problem I have with futo key board is that it can only do one language at a time. With gboard I can swipe type al 3 languages I speak without having to constantly switch. I wish they could make that.
- Combine this with AI, and you only have to ramble a bit on your keyboard to get the collected works of Shakespeare.
by willconnelly
0 subcomment
- The first two words i tried to type were both "hello" and I got "help" and "hell" as first suggestions. I'm not sure if the web app is using the same algo but that's an immediate ick.
by nozzlegear
0 subcomment
- The swipe demo on the website is neat! I wasn't expecting to be able to use it with my mouse.
- Is there some sort of swipe data standard? If there were, it feels like getting a few proper OSS projects going might start to shift things in the right direction (assuming they cracked a way to share a bit of anonymized data)
- The demo at least doesn't support tapping, which makes it a nope for me, even if the swiping experience hadn't been ~hank~ ~help~ hello world.
- Apple’s swipe to text is so good that I forget there’s still work to be done in the space. Great stuff FUTO.
by red_admiral
0 subcomment
- > Your keyboard shouldn't connect to the internet.
Amen. Glad to see that companies like that still exist.
- I'm curious how it compares with Microsoft SwiftKey. Obviously, that's not an open-source app, but it would be an interesting benchmark.
- Awesome project!! I will migrate off from gboard when support for Norwegian gets better.
by t_gamer_kle
0 subcomment
- Oh frabjous day! I've waited YEARS for something like this. THANK YOU FUTO!
by OsrsNeedsf2P
0 subcomment
- Does anyone know of a FOSS keyboard that supports swiping in Korean? I'm yet to find one
- what languages it support? They only mention "language-agnostic".
- I don't really get swiping. It's always going to be quicker and more efficient to type because you can use both hands, right? And you don't have to swipe your finger across the screen?
Still going strong with Fleksy even though you can't even download it anymore.
- If only FUTO supported combined keyboard languages without duplicates. Why would there be two separate de and en layouts when multilingual typing is enabled.
- This is building on quick sand, a truly new model would not use the same dumb old grid that's neither fit for hands nor for fingers.
But kudos for the openness!
by h4kunamata
3 subcomments
- FUTO is terrible!
I run GOS and have tried it, you spend more time deleting works than actually using it.
I was forced to install Google GBoard instead and revoke its network access. Gboard swipe typing works flawlessly, FUTO still an Alpha project.
- I really want to switch to FUTO keyboard but there are a few UX issues that prevent me. For example, SwiftKey lets you swipe left to delete a word, which is very useful, but FUTO doesnt, you have to start from the Backspace button.
Or, SwiftKey will allow you to change a typed word's case by pressing shift, but FUTO just does nothing in that case.
I really hope these get fixed, or I can just issue PRs myself for them.
- I've been using it for a while. The insistence of keyboards on having a large bar of autocorrect suggestions taking valuable vertical space annoys me to no end.
I really liked using Fleksy which let you swipe up and down on the keyboard to change autocorrect results, including adding words to your dictionary. I'm still not sure if FUTO even has that option.
by functionmouse
0 subcomment
- seems to be really good
- Very nice. FUTO is the keyboard I keep recommending. The only thing missing now would be a decent dual-swipe support. Injecting single letters with taps during a swipe or continuing a swipe with another finger makes it even faster since it let's you avoid awkward long horizontal "detours" just to hit one letter.
by charcircuit
0 subcomment
- At least the web demo doesn't work right if you swipe with multiple fingers at the same time.
- Can we please get this for iPhone? Their keyboard is extremely imprecise, I have to go back and correct each sentence.
by oehtXRwMkIs
1 subcomments
- demo seems worse than heliboard
- I used the FUTO keyboard for a few months but ditched it as the word suggestions were either odd or random (one example: I'd write 'Jordan' and it would always suggest 'Peterson' as the next word), and I'd got a weirdly passive aggressive prompt saying I should really purchase a license. Went back to the de-Googled Android keyboard in GrapheneOS
by selfawareMammal
0 subcomment
- I wrote Hola in spanish and got holocaust
by globular-toast
0 subcomment
- I used to use SwiftKey, but Microsoft acquired and ruined it years ago. It worked really well. Since then the only one that worked for me is Gboard.
I've had this installed for a while but found the swiping too inaccurate. I'm trying it again now and I reckon it's as good as Gboard now. I've written this comment using it. Nice!
Edit: I've noticed that, like Gboard, it's still hard to type words like "fuck" or even "tits" etc. Are these words just missing from the dictionary? It's always felt like I'm not allowed to type them because I'm not a big boy. I don't type those particular words much, as it happens, but other missing words is annoying.
- [dead]
by TechniKris
1 subcomments
- If you'd prefer a swipe typing library under a truly open license, NLnet is funding [1] the creation of one by the HeliBoard [2] devs.
HeliBoard currently uses a proprietary library extracted from GBoard, which you need to add manually (since the app has no Internet connectivity out of principle), but they're asking for swipe data contributions, to be then distributed under CC-BY-SA 4.0, which'll be then utilized by their own open swipe library.
Check our more details here [3], [4] if you'd like to contribute.
[1] https://nlnet.nl/project/GestureTyping/
[2] https://github.com/HeliBorg/HeliBoard
[3] https://github.com/HeliBorg/HeliBoard/wiki/Tutorial:-How-to-...
[4] https://youtu.be/CyjumVTWtJA
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