this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2026
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FOSS Keyboards

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Hey guys,

In the pursuit of getting rid of all the google/samsung crap on my phone possible, I decided to finally change my keyboard. I went through a few which just didn't work at all for me and landed on Heliboard and Sayboard for voice.

Now, I am trying to get used to it, but there are some really terrible glitches that almost make me want to go back to the samsung keyboard..maybe someone else has had these issues and can assist?

  1. I cannot paste images with heliboard. It just pastes a cryptic long line of code if i try. that means i have to download every image I share. not feasible

  2. holding backspace is painfully slow to delete a sentence letter by letter. the samsung keyboard had a great feature if you hold backspace for more than a second it deletes full words. super nice EDIT: I found out i can hold backspace and swipe left for this feature, cool.

  3. sayboard: for some reason, it will record my message and send it, but it will keep the same message in the message field. so every time i use it, i have to hold backspace down to delete (letter by letter) the entire previous message I sent. EDIT: I found this only does this in signal. when i send the message, it sends it, but does not clear the new message field.

  4. lastly, and maybe this is just me, but i SUCK at typing now with heliboard. I have to go way slower or i completely misspell words or end up with weird symbols and numbers. I could go way faster on the samsung keyboard. I'm not sure why this is, it tends to miss the spacebar input a lot too. The feel is just off.

I'd really like to solve these issues because heliboard does have some other awesome features I like, and i'd like to share it with others trying to get away from samsung, but in it's current state I can't recommend it for a normal user that just wants it to work.

for reference, this is a POS S23 (hate this phone, can't wait to get another one).

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[–] somegeek@programming.dev 2 points 19 hours ago

I dont know what keyboard lineageOS uses by default but that and "unexpected keyboard" work great for me.

[–] statler_waldorf@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I've tried a few times and always go back to gboard. I loathe giving info to Google, but nothing else comes close with swipe typing. It takes 10 times longer to type anything using other keyboards.

[–] untorquer@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

The open source swype works pretty well. Marginally more complicated to install

[–] Unfold1127@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I know there is some negative sentiment associated with the company, but I've found FUTO keyboard to be on par with Gboard, and better than Samsung Keyboard, when it comes to ease and accuracy of typing.

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 1 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I'll check it out! So that's FUTA keyboard right ?

[–] Unfold1127@lemmy.world 1 points 19 hours ago (1 children)
[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 1 points 17 hours ago

I was making a funny hehe

It isn't just you with sucking at typing with heliboard. I have used it for three years now and I still constantly have to go back and rewrite stuff or where it has auto corrected to some absolutely insane word that is no where near what I typed. Or I miss type one letter in the word and it is obvious what I would want to anyone except for this keyboard that then offers me no options.

I've never really been able to work out what the fuck is going on with it but something is just slightly off and always has been. It can be quite frustrating but also here I am three years later still struggling with it and I can't even tell you why.

Sorry I don't have a lot to add to the discussion, for the most part heliboard is decent but at the same time a part of me fucking hates this thing, I have just never found / really looked for a better alternative.

Maybe I should......

[–] nul9o9@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago

I was in the same boat and just gave up. I hate giving my typing history to Samsung/Google.

I even tried thumbkey for typing efficiency.

[–] 6nk06@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago

Have you tried https://keyboard.futo.org/? It's not perfect but it's still a good alternative.

I agree with you though, I'm an open-source fanboy but I still haven't found a keyboard as good as the one on iPhone. Shame...

[–] sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm a fan...well, strike that...I have been using AnySoftKeyboard for a while and am satisfied enough with it. I don't really use speech to text, so I can't comment on that part of it.

[–] bruzzard@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I can vouch for this beauty. Used; t on a few different phones. Was my go to for my "del googled" devices. Really good project. For speech to text you can just use FUTO's speech to text app. Ita also pretty good.