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Preparing a megathread about android FOSS apps - Part Four (Keyboards, Notes, Maps and Music Players) (lemmy.ml)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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This thread is ONLY to talk about Keyboards, Notes, Maps and Music Players. I add video Music Players because probably some people want to know about good FOSS alternatives.

Little context

spoiler

Why not build a megathread with the best and most reliable FOSS apps too help someone who want to join on the bright side of open source?

We (because this is not from me, this is from us) need to share thoughts, ideas and all things you want to say. Dont be shy. Upvote the comments you like and agree; disagree and tell why you disagree. This is will be different from others threads because this need a proper user opinion, and your opinions will be VERY important to build this. In short, your opinions and thoughts will be the fundamental source to build this.

I will read ALL comments to build this. Even if this has a million comments, I’m going to waste time reading it. Whatever it takes.

Your opinions about it are CRUCIAL and FUNDAMENTAL, because your opinions is the main-base to build the megathread.

Please, consider share your ideas and thoughts about apps on previous threads. Your opinions are really important to build final megathread. You can upvote or downvote posts so that comments gain strength and agreement between the community.

spoiler

Discussion about Contacts, SMS and Dialers app is here.

Discussion about Calculators, Cameras and Calendars apps is here.

Discussion about Manager files, Recorders, Galleries and Video editors apps is here.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 9 months ago (14 children)

I yearn for the day a FOSS keyboard for Android will have functional multilingual autocorrect. Most of the typing I do on my phone is in Frenglish and every FOSS keyboard I've tried has made it impossible to have autocorrect turned on. They always default to autocorrecting in either only English or only French which is just very frustrating.

Compare that to SwiftKey, which not only has no issues with mixed languages, also learns my texting patterns, such as typing j'fais rather than je fais. I just don't give it any permissions, including network access. It's one of the only proprietary things on my phone but I couldn't use my phone without it.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (5 children)

Have you tried this active fork of OpenBoard? The dev added support for multilingual typing months ago. This has Material You theme as well as glide typing (needs to be turned on manually).

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

Really happy with this fork, using it for several months now. Also occasionally Unexpected Keyboard for termux / ssh / code ....

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Wow thanks, exactly what I've been looking for!

Edit: was using swype which was last updated in 2018 and is broken with android 14. Been looking for a replacement for ages. This open board fork is the best replacement I've tried so far. The word prediction works differently but I'll get used to it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

~~I've just installed it and it appears that you still have to manually switch between languages, otherwise it won't correct your attempts to write in another language.~~

edit: looks like you need to press on your preferred dictionary and add multilingual typing for it to work. it's quite decent, especially when you set autocorrect to "very aggressive", otherwise it will have difficulties recognising when you're trying to type in the secondary language.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I was honestly hoping for a reply like this when I commented. I'll give it a try, thanks! 😊 I'd love to ditch SwiftKey.

Edit: So far, it's the by far best FOSS option I've tried. There's even a couple of things it does much better than SwiftKey IMO (although I do wish there were an option to make the keyboard a bit smaller, it feels massive!) I'll stick with it for 2-3 weeks to try and train its auto-correct to my liking.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Do open an issue on GitHub for whatever you feel needs work. This project is being actively worked upon, I've seen stuff get implemented within a day even!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

After looking around the settings a bit more, I noticed the "keyboard height scale" and "bottom padding scale" options, I set both of these to 80% and it's perfect!

Thanks again the the great suggestion 😊

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Very impressed with the number of issues that have been opened in just the last few months. It's clear there is a lot of interests in a FOSS keyboard. There are requests for gifs in there as well. Also the multiple pull requests from different contributors are promising.

Unfortunately I, like many other, probably do like 30℅ of my communication via gifs so it's realm hard to go without regardless of how much I want to use a FOSS app.

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