A lot of Gboard beta users are suddenly remembering they joined the beta.
  • Die4Ever@programming.devEnglish
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    27 days ago

    maybe the idea is that round keys will have less typos than rectangular keys that are all touching each other?

    • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.mlEnglish
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      27 days ago

      They are most likely running an A/B test on exactly those metrics.

      We’ll know if it’s successful if they roll it out in the end.

    • BlueFire@lemdro.idEnglish
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      27 days ago

      Hopefully with the more available space between the keys, then there will be less typos.

      I type with my thump cause I like to use my phone one handed but I get a lot of typos due to that.

      Florisboard beta keyboard lets you increase that available space even further by decreasing the letter size. It’s still missing other features tho, like word suggestions, auto correct etc.

  • CubitOom@infosec.pubEnglish
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    27 days ago

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

      • CubitOom@infosec.pubEnglish
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        27 days ago

        wrong

        Edit: just noticed it also keeps turning on background mobile data usage dispite me having explicitly disabled that.

          • merde alors@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
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            27 days ago

            yes, you can. I think it was these 2 lines ☞

            adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.touchtype.swiftkey

            adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.swiftkey.swiftkeyconfigurator

            @CubitOom@infosec.pub

          • qupada@fedia.io
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            27 days ago

            Yes, but you shouldn’t.

            After a reboot, a lot of phones can only use the device’s default keyboard app for entering the unlock pin/password.

            If you’ve removed or disabled it, you can get into a situation where you have no keyboard at all, and a delightful chicken-and-egg situation of needing a keyboard you don’t have until after unlocking the device to enter the code to unlock the device.

            (A USB keyboard will let you escape this, for what that’s worth)

            • LemUrun@pawb.socialEnglish
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              27 days ago

              I removed (not really, it shows “Not installed for this user” in All apps list) GBoard using Canta and nothing is happening. I use Yandex Keyboard.

          • CubitOom@infosec.pubEnglish
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            27 days ago

            This is a pixel 8 running stock android 15. There is no option to disable unlike other preinstalled apps.

    • Raiderkev@lemmy.worldEnglish
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      27 days ago

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

      • Onno (VK6FLAB)@lemmy.radioEnglish
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        27 days ago

        I have avoided Microsoft software for 25 years or so, so I don’t have any reference point, but there was a time when Google lead the pack in innovation, that’s no longer the case.

    • jet@hackertalks.comEnglish
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      27 days ago

      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.

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.worldEnglish
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          26 days ago

          It’s a KPI you develop in the 00s culture of move fast and break things when the competition is at your heels and you want to be at theirs. You want to be the search engine that made the email client everyone uses otherwise that email client might make a search engine everyone uses…

          It was outdated in the mid 10s, and it’s the mid 20s now

    • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.techEnglish
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      27 days ago

      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.

      • Onno (VK6FLAB)@lemmy.radioEnglish
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        27 days ago

        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.

        • dan1101@lemm.eeEnglish
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          27 days ago

          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.

          • mystique@midwest.socialEnglish
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            26 days ago

            It still requires the extra click, but if you hit the search icon again then your keyboard will pop up. So no need to move your finger up top, Spotify’s search has the same setup.

      • Khrux@ttrpg.networkEnglish
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        27 days ago

        One thing I did notice a while back, was seeing the 2022ish interface for YouTube and Google search and feeling how dated it was, still absolutely usable mind you, just clearly with a design ethos from an older era.

        Most the time, I feel that changes Google make are absolutely arbitrary, rounding a button and then squaring it again, but I need to give them credit that there is something more, something about staying at the forefront of GUIs. It’s still all bullshit of course, the old one looks older but is identically useful.

  • NickwithaC@lemmy.worldEnglish
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    27 days ago

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

    • MaggiWuerze@feddit.orgEnglish
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      27 days ago

      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

  • Pennomi@lemmy.worldEnglish
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    27 days ago

    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.

  • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
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    27 days ago

    Good time for FOSS keyboard apps to get some more love

    Heliboard and Futo were the recommendations from what I remember?

    • Mac@mander.xyzEnglish
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      27 days ago

      Currently using Traditional T9 from F-Droid. Works well.
      Even has a decent emoji picker, which is good. 👌 (However, i say that and couldn’t find the OK symbol…)

      But for a full board: Heliboard is my go-to.

    • QuadratureSurfer@lemmy.worldEnglish
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      27 days ago

      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.

      • ComicalMayhem@lemmy.worldEnglish
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        26 days ago

        Futo works really nice! Glide is pretty decent, though not as good as gboard’s. Wish it had custom background images though…

      • big_slap@lemmy.worldEnglish
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        27 days ago

        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

        • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
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          27 days ago

          The voice transcription is just OpenAI whisper but yeah it’s pretty great. I used it to write this.

        • QuadratureSurfer@lemmy.worldEnglish
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          27 days ago

          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.

        • foggenbooty@lemmy.worldEnglish
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          26 days ago

          Oh man, is that the issue with my clipboard? It has been driving me NUTS. The other issues are true, but I can live with them. I’ve really been enjoying FUTO though, so I’m not sure I want to give it up.

        • CubitOom@infosec.pubEnglish
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          27 days ago

          I haven’t had any of those issues. Out of curiosity, what version of futo keyboard are you running?

      • burgersc12@mander.xyzEnglish
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        27 days ago

        Heliboard is basically the same, but has the ability to add glide. Plus suggestions/corrections are already implemented, so I prefer it over Floris (which I used for months before finding heliboard)

        • GreatWhiteBuffalo41@slrpnk.netEnglish
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          26 days ago

          Anyone longing looking to add swipe library for heliboard Find it Here by picking raw and then uploading it to heliboard in advanced settings>load gesture typing library.

          Sharing because it took me a bit to find it the first time.

    • Einar@lemm.eeEnglish
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      27 days ago

      OpenBoard still works well for me. Including swiping and auto correct.

  • quant@leminal.spaceEnglish
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    26 days ago

    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.

  • riodoro1@lemmy.worldEnglish
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    27 days ago

    The keys are not even the size they are on the screen, what’s getting drawn is just a grid of letters. Touch keyboards are far more complicated than you think.

    • paraphrand@lemmy.worldEnglish
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      27 days ago

      Yeah. I’m gonna guess this types about the same. This is probally just an aesthetic change for the appearance of being “New!”.

    • Curious Canid@lemmy.caEnglish
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      27 days ago

      I periodically try FUTO. It’s a great keyboard, except for its swiping support. That seems to be gradually improving, but it isn’t quite there yet. Unfortunately that is how I do all my typing, so I keep going back to GBoard. I look forward to leaving it for good.

      • GreatWhiteBuffalo41@slrpnk.netEnglish
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        26 days ago

        This has been my issue with every single FOSS keyboard. I can’t live without swipe.

        Edit: Forgot you could download a swipe library for heliboard Here by picking raw and then uploading it to heliboard in advanced settings>load gesture typing library.

        • Curious Canid@lemmy.caEnglish
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          26 days ago

          I have added the swipe library to FUTO. It works, but not well enough for me. (That may be my clumsy swiping, but the issue remains.) I estimate that it gets about one word in four wrong. GBoard is still wrong about one time in ten, but at that rate, swiping and correcting is still much faster for me than traditional typing.

      • Zippythezigzag@lemm.eeEnglish
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        27 days ago

        Ahh. I only use it occasionally. I’m bad at spelling and need the word predictions too much.