Over the years I’ve tested out pretty much all the Android keyboards, but swipe typing always kept me on GBoard, even though GBoard did not support voice typing for anything except Google, so I had to switch keyboards for that.
Recently I learned that HeliBoard has support for gesture typing with the Google library. But I couldn’t find any instructions on where to get the necessary files or how to do it. Well, someone posted a link to the file elsewhere so I’ll share it here. And it works! Extremely well. I can also pin a button for voice typing and then select Transcribro for that (which uses OpenAI Whisper locally and works super well.
Another gripe I had with GBoard was the cursor moves way too fast when swiping on the space bar. Not so with Heliboard. You can also swipe backwards from the backspace key and it will highlight text and then delete it when you let go.
It’s really not necessary. It’s as simple as downloading the file I linked, then going into advanced settings and selecting “load gesture typing library” at the very bottom and selecting the file.
You wrote you “couldn’t find any instructions on where to get the necessary files or how to do it”. I just provided the info where one can find the wiki with the instructions (among other info), and the link to the repo with other versions beside arm64-v8a. That is all.
I use HeliBoard myself and love it. Lots of customization and glide typing works as well as on other keyboards.
I see that FUTO has a keyboard too. Is it necessary to install both FUTO keyboard and voice input?
Do people like the FUTO keyboard as a google alternative?
I used FUTO keyboard as well. But it doesn’t allow to import swipe gesture libraries. They have their own swipe dataset but it’s not very good. Plus it’s not open source.
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I’ve always had trouble with Heliboard. I don’t know why, but I just can’t seem to type on it.
Edit: This is me typknfnkn hslkbkadd in the same waybibtypebkn gboard.
I struggle with it too tbh
The instructions are on their Github wiki, the link to which can be found in the About section of HeliBoard Settings, for anyone who’s curious.
It’s really not necessary. It’s as simple as downloading the file I linked, then going into advanced settings and selecting “load gesture typing library” at the very bottom and selecting the file.
You wrote you “couldn’t find any instructions on where to get the necessary files or how to do it”. I just provided the info where one can find the wiki with the instructions (among other info), and the link to the repo with other versions beside arm64-v8a. That is all.
I use HeliBoard myself and love it. Lots of customization and glide typing works as well as on other keyboards.
Yes and then I wrote that that was unnecessary. That is all.
Bro be kind
I see that FUTO has a keyboard too. Is it necessary to install both FUTO keyboard and voice input? Do people like the FUTO keyboard as a google alternative?
Futo is really good! The voice input is amazing! And you can actually download just the voice input and use it inside Heliboard if you want
Futo is very problematic.
I used FUTO keyboard as well. But it doesn’t allow to import swipe gesture libraries. They have their own swipe dataset but it’s not very good. Plus it’s not open source.
I use Futo Voice Input for voice input myself.
But yes, Helioboard is amaze.
I used the whatever third party blob for Helioboard’s swipe input is from… Forgot where I got the instructions for that…but it was easy peasy.
They’re both pretty much the same thing except Transcribro is actually open source.