this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2025
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Android

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

Has anyone noticed gboard randomly closes now on Pixel 9? Can't find info about this issue anywhere.

[–] [email protected] 138 points 1 week ago (8 children)

For about a decade now google has been changing shit for no particular reason, this is just the latest.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's just their way they keep it alive. If it were actually good, Google would cancel it.

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The reason is their internal promotion culture. You cant get promoted without global impact, so buckle up we are changing things so we can get promoted not because it's better.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's got to be the absolute worst KPI I've ever heard of.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

God how many things have changed on my phone that I did not ask them to. Changing the font on the clock. Changing the lock screen layout. REMOVING FROGGY WEATHER BEING BACK FROGGY YOU FUCKS.

Marketing and design teams just have to justify their existence. Makes for annoying stupid changes.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Don't get me started.

Gmail for business has been renamed at least four times.

Google Home changed layout for no particular reason and made everything an extra click away.

Google Assistant removed perfectly working actions, try turning on your A/C at 3am in the morning whilst you're sleeping.

Android changes navigation modes making everything worse.

Gmail keeps changing its layout.

Google Admin moves sections around for no reason.

Google search returns worse results every week.

Google Gemini is infecting every service.

Google Sites removed simple blogging functionality without any alternative.

Free services for life are now paid.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Google Play moved the search button to the bottom but you still have to tap at the top to type your search, so it's just an extra click.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Basically, they have nothing else to do, so they just throw shit at the wall to see what sticks.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago

Sticky touchscreen for haptic feedback?
Sir, you earned yourself an extra piss break!

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[–] [email protected] 113 points 1 week ago (4 children)

The fuck? If you’re gonna change the shape of the keys, at least make them hexagons. Because as we all know, hexagons are the bestagons.

[–] [email protected] 68 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

Also then the clickable area would be bigger reducing errors. I tried a keyboard that did this once. Was a rough transition, but I managed. Unfortunately I ended up going back since it was lacking some other features.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 week ago (1 children)

We didn't ask for the red to pink colour fade on the Youtube playbar either but here we are...

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago (2 children)

HOLY SHIT. Thank you. That's what that is. I thought my screen was wonky or my eyesight was failing. It's not even really linear, it just looks like the last 3cm of the bar are pink

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 week ago (7 children)

Heliboard is the best right now

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 week ago (7 children)

Good time for FOSS keyboard apps to get some more love

Heliboard and Futo were the recommendations from what I remember?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Futo has been my favorite so far compared to other keyboards. I haven't used Heliboard yet, but it also looks like a good option.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago (7 children)

I use the futo keyboard as well, but autocorrect and swiping is not good at all. correctly spelt words constantly gets changed for me, clipboard doesn't see what I copy too many times and swiping inaccuracy is too frequent.

only reason I put up with it is for the futo microphone. mic app is in a league of it's own

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I had the same problem, but I found that turning up the advanced Parameter Values in the Text Prediction settings helps to keep everything spelled correctly. I'm currently at 10.4 for the transformer strength and 8.3 for the autocorrect threshold and I'm noticing a lot less issues.... I haven't tested out turning it up all the way yet.

I also have the Transformer fine tuning enabled.

The swipe feature definitely needs some attention.

They do have a crowdsourced way of helping to improve their swipe prediction, more info on the link here: https://swipe.futo.org/

You'll notice that even the swipe prediction for Heliboard comes from a closed source library.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)

This is the keyboard I use:

Florisboard beta (doesnt have gliding and I think autocorrect yet)

Sample image from my keyboard looking like gboard-dark-blue-limitless

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 week ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Circles are the worst possible shape in terms of making efficient use of the limited screen space available on a phone. The screen is rectangular and nearly everything we display falls into rectangular arrangements. Using circles just means there is less room on each key to show useful information, like the long-hold functions.

I'm not opposed to change, but change entirely for the sake of change usually produces bad results.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I'm right there with you. I hate the current trend of rounded corners on everything. I know designers say it is more aesthetically pleasing, but to me it just looks like wasted space.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago (17 children)

Don't use gboard, rather download a keyboard from F-Droid and avoid the keylogging :-)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Or at least use SwiftKey, and turn off mobile and wifi in app settings, something you cannot do for pre-installed apps like gboard

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago

Late-stage tech bros, devoid of innovation and flailing at their precious cup game.

I'm so over this garbage. RIP smartphones.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago

I like this. But this should be an option.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

I wanna switch to FOSS alternatives but swiping is either funky (FUTO) or not available for now (Floris). I ended up downgrading gboard to an older version since all this emoji stuff (especially the bitmoji sticker nonsense) really grinds my gears.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 week ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago

Did you try Heliboard? It can be setup to swipe, though I mostly tap type. When i have used the swipe it has worked well though. I have been using it for over a year now and really like it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Swiping seems to work fine on Heliboard (I guess because it uses the same proprietary library as gboard)

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago

g what? I only know Heliboard

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago (9 children)

All I want is for gboard to stop hijacking my default keyboard. I set futo for a reason and I meant it.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

I switched to Heliboard and I couldn't be more happier! It is just as good as any proprietary keyboards.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago (12 children)

FUTO keyboard. Try it. Say bye to gboard.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

Looks awful

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