Best alternative keyboards? (not gboard)

I would prefer to not have to sideload any alternative keyboard, but typing on the stock keyboard is SO tedious. I’ve heard gboard works well but really don’t want to use a google product.

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I’m a fan of the FUTO keyboard. Have used it for as long as it has been out on my previous phone and continues to work well on the Kompakt. To install through F-Droid you need to setup the FUTO repo but it’s a painless process.

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I second FUTO keyboard.

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ohhh cool! Ill download it from Aurora and give it a try
thanks

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Swift keyboard.

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Also Fossify has been mentioned couple times.

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I tried FUTO keyboard and I love it. It pairs well with the Kompakt, especially when all the autocorrect suggestions are disabled, action bar disabled, swipe typing disabled, etc. It is much more responsive than the stock keyboard and I don’t need to make corrections often.

It also appears to have the behavior where it will dyamically adjust the invisible tap bounding boxes of each character so that the most expected next characters are the easiest to hit. The less likely a character is, the smaller the box gets.

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I’m a fan of HeliBoard. It supports swype/gesture typing which is really helpful and it’s been working pretty well. I installed a bunch of different keyboards to try and this is the one I settled on.

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I removed Gboard from my kompakt, and I am now using Futo, I don’t want anything from google on my Kompakt, keep it virus free!! (To me google is a virus :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: )

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Think I am going to try a different keyboard, I find the swipe to text on futo not that great, it was better on gboard, will give switft key a try

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I hate all these keyboards lol, went back to gboard

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Yeah it isn’t perfect but given FUTO’s goal I have some hope that it actually respects privacy. Not to say Swiftkey doesn’t, I just haven’t used it in many years and I’m no longer familiar and couldn’t say either way with any confidence.

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But if I am using gboard off the aurora store on a degoolged Kompakt google can’t track me etc, steal data? Sorry not super technical just want to make sure google can’t get me!

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Without doing some digging it really depends on how paranoid you want to be (mine being higher than average, but not at the point that every unmarked van is out to get me lol). From where you install the apk from makes little difference though, Aurora Store is handy for getting those must-have apps but they’re not modifying the .apk in any way, nor would I want them to since that would be a larger security concern imo. Gboard will send the same data back to google regardless of the phone it is installed on, and to be fair this may actually be zero, I also haven’t used it in years and I’m not 100% sure if it is collecting any data at all. Super busy ATM and will be gone most of July, but remind me early august and I can get a more definitive answer…sorry, I know that’s a long ways off.

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Yeah honestly now I am re-thinking an app I have sideloaded wondering if its collecting data, I have a spotify account its a free one, are they collecting my data without my permission, I have Waze a directions app also but I am using it as a guest. I just finished watching a doc from a few years back called ‘Terms and conditions May apply’ and its honeslty disgusting how much we have/are being monitored. I am happy I am deactivated all my social media accounts years ago but it seems like they are never truly deleted, even a facebook account I had over a decade now I wonder if they still have my data, photos etc

Is there any way or legal recourse I have to contact them, instagram to make sure all my past accounts were deleted?

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I am currently using thé heliboard (keyboard app) available on F-Droid and it suitable for my needs. The letters are more bigger than on the Gboard and it suits the small screen from the Mudita Kompakt.

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Almost guaranteed they’re collecting some data, how much is difficult to say without monitoring each one specifically. A decent rule of thumb to go by, with some caveats, if it is free then you are the product. Sad/annoying part nowadays is how many things you pay for that still insists on gathering data and shoving ads in your face ($2000 TV’s plastered with ads, gas station pumps blasting ads in your ear while you’re actively paying for the service they offer, Microsoft Windows showing ads everywhere regardless of activation status, etc.).
Anyways, Meta/Facebook/Instagram all should have some method of requesting your data be deleted as per GDPR but to be honest I’m not certain that have to abide by that if you’re not a European citizen. Even then, I’m not sure if there’s any evidence they could show to prove it actually happened either so still kinda at their mercy.
It’s really quite the rabbit hole when it comes down to combating data collection though. Even if not using a specific app or anything that’s overtly collecting data there’s a ton of methods for building profiles on ‘anonymized’ data from browser cookies and fingerprinting. Use a VPN that cycles endpoints periodically, always clear browser cookies on exit (and close out your browser at least semi-frequently), use email aliases when signing up for services (added benefit of this is if you ever stop using a service and you’re getting junk mail, just delete the alias and you’ll never see those emails again), are some of the easier things that have a decent impact. Farther down the rabbit hole is running your web browser fullscreen so the resolution is reported as a generic size that most other people are using, running in a smaller window means there’s probably very few people with the same identical resolution being reported and is a pretty good giveaway of 2 browsing sessions being correlated. Changing the user-agent is a similar tactic, just look up whatever the most popular user agent is and set that, if you’re using some unique browser that few people are using that’s another thing that is easy to correlate.
Happy paranoia! :smile:

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But specifically with gboard how can they know my indentity? I am using a degoogled device

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I am going to try fossigy messaging, I don’t want anything google on my device!

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Did not like Fossify either, I decided to remove it and I am not using gboard either, I actually went back to the stock keyboard, it is slower but I think thats better for me to be honest I am really looked at my sideloaded apps and asked myself just because I can put it on here should it be on here? Because I was fine with a light phone where I could not sideload anything, even spotify, I have it on here but I am not using it that much, so I am questioning why I have it on here, even though I force stop it so it does not drain battery.

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