this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2025
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that seems like a lot of battery for just a keyboard
It runs a local LLM for auto correct and voice to text.
that seems like overkill
No, that's a feature. Google voice to text will send everything to google servers.
Weird, I put my phone in airplane mode and verbally typed this out
You probably have this off https://www.guidingtech.com/wp-content/uploads/Turn-Off-Gboard-Toggles3.jpg
That is turned off but it must have defaulted to that. I don't recall ever seeing this option before. In fact I don't think I've ever even been in that menu, lol. The other options in there were turned on, were turned on.
Mine is off too. I'm usually too busy to bother with worrying too much about Google stealing my data. I've been using Google for so long that it's too late for me.
Save yourselves.
Yeah, it's the one real negative I have with it and something a lot of reviews for it mention.
Tried HeliBoard?
HeliBoard is soooo good. Seconded. A lot of FOSS keyboards out there need.... A little more polish ^^;
Data harvesting?
Futo is Foss and offline. I switched to it recently from Swiftkey. Before that, apps would always restart if I switched windows or tabbed back to home screen and I assumed it was just my phone being lame. But since switching, that happens a lot less. So I can only assume futo is using less resources.
They aren't true foss, but 'source available'. I don't remember why exactly (probably for licensing or something) and the typical user won't know what that means nor care, but it is something to be aware of.
I like and use Grayjay, but the keyboard was not up to my standards, personally. Can't find any foss/adjacent keyboards to come close to SwiftKey at all. I've been using it since release like 16+ years ago (?) or something, and every time I try something else, it's just bad for a bunch of reasons.
Yup, it’s not FOSS but FUTO did some semi-shady definition shuffling so it would sound like it was, in the past.
That, combined with some other recent drama about more shady behaviour, mean I’ll probably generally avoid things coming out of them.
For truly FOSS android keyboards afaik there is Florisboard, Heliboard, AnysoftKey, Fossify Keyboard or Unexpected keyboard, as well as a couple more experimental options.
Dammit. Thanks for that. The description made it look like Foss and I fell for it. I've only just got my futo trained, but I'll look at the others you recommended. I got the beta fossify before futo as I like the rest of the suite, but it didn't even have a dictionary?
I’ve only really used AnysoftKeyboard and Heliboard myself. But my mobile keyboard ‘needs’ are really low - mostly some specifics around terminal keys and multi-language.
Honestly, if your setup works for you maybe don’t rush into changing right now. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good and so on. When you have the time and motivation you can always take some time to investigate the other options more in-depth! Sorry I can’t be of more help here
Only two of the ones you recommended show up in the play store for me. Anysoft got really bad reviews. I tried Unexpected, but it lives up to its name. I didn't expect to need a read a manual to learn how it works. I've made sure futo doesn't have internet access and it hasn't sent any data according to android. I'm a Dvorak girl (even though it does make hilarious typos more likely on touchscreen) and its hard to find a good keyboard that works well with Dvorak.
Once fossify's one comes out of beta, I'll give it another go.
Oh yes, I cannot vouch for anything on the playstore since I use f-droid for most of the apps on my android. Just makes more sense to me, FOSS platform for FOSS apps.
I do know that AnysoftKeyboard has a bunch of Dvorak layouts since that's the one I use (the kb not the layout 😅) and so could quickly check.
But regardless, if you are happy with the current keyboard functions I don't mean to harp on about these others - and I think cutting off outbound traffic for the futo is a clever step!
I believe there's some form of training involved in swift key so yeah, if you have a 16 year old one you should probably hold on to it
Yeah. I've looked into pulling the custom dictionary data but had issues logging in to obtain them - and I'm pretty sure that it won't include the 'logic' required that tries to determine 'when to use' one suggestion vs another.