I could not recommend AnySoftKeyboard to my mum. I could recommend Florisboard, tho.
Openboard is virtually dead from what I can see. So that leaves Florisboard as the only open source alternative (that I know of) that could really be used by the masses. And the world would actually be a way better place if we all opensource freaks could install Florisboard on our family/friends phones and them barely noticing anything weird.
The problem is… no word suggestions yet. It’s been years and we are still lacking what is almost an essential feature of a phone’s keyboard.
I wish I could really work on it, but I lack the knowledge to do so; so I hope I am bringing some attention to the project.
Is there any other alternative I am unaware of?
Why wouldn’t you recommend AnySoftKeyboard?
I have used it for a few years. You have a ton of good setups, good language support with decent autocorrect. The only thing that is less intuitive is swiping to change keyboards and the emoji selection menu.
I guess the lack of a clipboard has burned me recently too (locked out of bitwarden because 2FA password was stored in bitwarden and the fingerprint scanner didn’t work because I added a fingerprint)
Florisboard has many good features and is insanely customizable which are not present in AnySoftKeyboard. The only thing lacking as of now is the inferior swipe typing and word suggestions.
Not asking to start an argument but do you know what those features and customizability optons are?
Because I am currently running a German/English/Terminal-mode multi setup with everything set up right around how I need and the customization in AnySoft keyboard was quite honestly astounding to me (if very cumbersome to discover everything).
So if Floris offers even more possibilities I am wondering what they could even be?
I tried AnySoftKeyboard again as it’s been a while since I used it and here are my thoughts.
FlorisBoard has a lot of small things that can make interacting with text easier. You can have a toolbar in addition to the number row which has buttons for copy, paste, select all, cut and paste. This eliminates the need for long pressing text to invoke these actions. There’s a layout called “Quick Text Editing” in ASK but that disables the number row. This is quite a deal breaker.
It also has a clipboard manager which was missing in ASK.
You can add a secondary toolbar which has buttons for undo and redo. This is one of the most useful feature for me. It allows you to, well, undo and redo text basically everywhere. This is helpful since text input fields don’t have a way to undo and redo text. It can be a lifesaver in many occasions.
Swiping left/right on the spacebar is faster and feels natural compared to ASK’s one character movement per swipe. Swiping from one end of the spacebar to the other end moves the cursor by many number of letters depending on speed. On ASK swiping from one end to other moves the cursor by only one letter.
You can create custom themes on FlorisBoard locally by editing a few variables. This is not a huge thing but it might be useful.
In FlorisBoard long pressing letters inserts symbols instead of variations of the letter.
Of course most of these are small and won’t concern most people, but these are good quality of life additions for me.
I see, that makes sense and is very interesting. I will remember this for some inevitable phase of going from never touch running system to ohh shiny down the road. While I suppose some of these are just things working differently on the two boards, I see your points.
Although I did learn in this thread that ASK also has a clipboard history and undo! Though - to be frank it is hidden under an up-swipe of the spacebar.
What features does it have that aren’t present in AnySoftKeyboard?
By word suggestions do you mean autocorrect? That is really a dealbreaker for me with touchscreen keyboards and switching languages 😅
Trying it out now though.
Is there some way to get rid of the massive utility row? Or customize long press length? Or have only punctuatiom symbols on the period and numbers in the qwerty row? Doesn’t work for the dutch keyboard for some reason.
I wrote a long reply to another comment in this thread. You can check it.
Word suggestions when you type a few letters. But yes it’s autocorrect is severely lacking.
I believe it’s called “smart bar”. It can be disabled.
Yes
I don’t know about this.
wait, how does a supposed lack of clipboard (which ASK does support) cause you to lock you out of a password manager?
No I do not store critical passwords in my clipboard like the other poster suggested.
It was bad timing and stupidity on my part. A bit complicated. Story here:
I updated my Bitwarden encryption settings, so it kicked me out of every instance I had, which stored my password for my 2FA. Normally this is no problem because aegis has biometrics. I had added a fingerprint earlier in the day because mine wasn’t working well, and didn’t realize that it would shutdown fingerprint access to the app (and it sent no notification). I made a backup of the bitwarden database, but I chose account-locked encrypted because it was the suggestion.
I hadn’t made a 2FA backup code for bitwarden yet because it doesn’t prompt you to when setting up 2FA (at that point in time) like all other apps and I just completely forgot. Definitely fixed that now.
I had just used the password for Aegis earlier in the day because my fingerprint was being very unreliable (hence changing it later)
My server had a password backup, but I had moved a few months before and hadn’t had time to set it all back up, and my harddrive encryption passwords were stored on bitwarden (backups on a paper I couldn’t find)
Ergo, my clipboard would have saved me because I used my password like 5 copy actions earlier. I ended up getting access through a local app instance of bitwarden that hadn’t received the encryption update while my computer was disconnected from the internet.
Stupid, but a clipboard would have saved me time and stress in that case. All od the stupid mistakes that culminated have been fixed now. Important lesson.
so you mean clipboard history. ASK has got that too, just hidden a little bit, you need to swipe up on the space bar and long press the paste button on the menu that pops up.
Learn something new everyday… Thanks! This is sure to come in handy at some point.
Huh, had no idea, damn i will have to find that! Thanks!
They permanently store critical PWs in the clipboard? Hell no. Not even Florisboards internal one I would trust, even though assuring that is secure would be great
well, that sure would be an idiotic way of managing one’s credentials.
Even on latest Android, every foreground app can read “your clipboard”. That is the (like everything in Android) very basic 1-entry one. Florisboard is great if you preset the right stuff, as the internal clipboard can replace it (sync from system) but you can disable “sync to system”
Just make sure to always copy with the Keyboars and not the system popup, which UX-wise is absurd
It crashes on me.
All. The. Time.
Once you use Florisboard you realise that even with all those options in AnySoftKeyboard, you cannot fully setup something as modern, well-functioning and organized as Florisboard.
There is one thing that makes me shut AnySoftKeyboard down everytime I come back and try it, which is that, when you hold down a key to show the alternative options… you have to really put your finger up over the options to select them… but only from the second row up. Makes no sense and no one seems to realise how wrong that is.