Post by @jameshowell@fediscience.org

2026-07-21 03:12 UTC

OMG you guys holy CRAP nerdgasm WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME ABOUT #HELIBOARD So I've been on #GrapheneOS for three years. Never touched Android before that. I installed OpenBoard on day one, based on what I took to be the consensus. Liked it very much. Today it started acting up. Baffling. Decided to uninstall/reinstall. Not listed in #fdroid ... because the repo has not been touched in FOUR YEARS Cut to me trying FlorisBoard (also impressive, except it currently lacks text suggestions, dealbreaker) and settling on HeliBoard. Not only does it cram in ALL KINDS of how-did-I-live-without-it functionality, but the design exposes all of it with gentle discoverability. A SHOWPIECE of #foss #floss #libresoftware https://github.com/HeliBorg/HeliBoard

Replies (5)

@EdTheDev@infosec.exchange 2026-07-23 03:15

@jameshowell@fediscience.org And it had gesture typing! Hooray! Thanks for the tip!

Open ##4025455
@theeclecticdyslexic@mstdn.social 2026-07-21 03:15

@jameshowell@fediscience.org James I tried! Look at my pinned posts, I have been trying! :-) I will let helium know how much you like it next time we chat. I think learning about how much people like his hard work does him some good!

Open ##5140857
@BoredBakon@freeradical.zone 2026-07-21 04:33

@jameshowell@fediscience.org I highly recommend FUTO keyboard as well. Technically not FOSS, but it's kinda amazing and has a great offline gesture library. Recently had an update that was game changing in that regard.

Open ##5140877
@bgtdsword@toot.io 2026-07-21 08:47

@jameshowell@fediscience.org Thanks for the suggestion! Didn't know about it either. Customizing the layout by just typing the keys you need is honestly great

Open ##5140883
@stackeffect@social.tchncs.de 2026-07-21 13:07

@jameshowell@fediscience.org Maybe not the best timing to recommend it, but I'm very happy with Unexpected Keyboard (also on #fdroid ) https://github.com/Julow/Unexpected-Keyboard

Open ##5140884