edit: NOT guaranteed to be free and open! seems to have a confusing license setup. Boooo! Works good though, I'll take it over Gboard.
This is such a massive deal. This is, as far as I can tell, the first useful free and open Swipe model. This paves the way for things like swipe typing on platforms other than iOS and Android, a major pain point to newcomer OSes.
The clause you cited as well as the "Termination" section and the non-commercial restriction make it a non-free license. Besides the direct implications, it also means all software covered by this license is unsuitable for FOSS-only distributions like Debian or F-Droid. It's not entirely clear to me if the license is copyleft; derivative works have similar problems if so.
To add to the license complexity, the model uses another FUTO-written license, though it at least does not seem as bad as the license for the keyboard:
It’s unfortunate that the Bing team at Microsoft has so much power. They destroy products for the glory of Bing, and some money. Perhaps it’s about the money. But I feel like Microsoft doesn’t have to make a lot of money on everything they do.
I've been using HeliBoard for a while now, but IIRC the swipe library it uses is from Google (have to install it separately to comply with license). Wonder how this stacks up.
Must say it's a little bit lame that they are boycotting iOS. I will not change phone just to use this app but it would be nice to be able to replace SwiftKey with this.
I'm pretty sure there is no way for them to supply an ios version without having to go through some sort of apple approval process. hardly boycotting to say that you're not about to put up with that crap.
Don't they have to go through a Google approval process for (official) Android? I'm not sure I see this as a big win unless they are strictly supporting GrapheneOS and other de-Googled Androids.
they do, but it's on fdroid too - at that point the play store is simply a nice to have. if google does anything they don't like they can just say okay and keep publishing on fdroid, they have not lost whatever efforts they have invested into android. apple has absolutely no way to just publish an app and let people install it, which at least to my mind delegitimises them as a viable platform. I'm pretty sure if I made open source mobile apps they would be android only, people would be free to take the source and release an ios version under different branding.
This is amazing! It's driven me nuts for a very long time that so many mobile keyboards allow totally non-sequitur nonsensical sequence completions.
In particular, if you end up using the voice input mode of it and have trouble with accuracy, I would giving a try to the biggest model that it supports. It's slower (although really not bad at all on my Galaxy Fold), but it's so nice to have it actually be as accurate as it is.
I used the FUTO keyboard for a few months but ditched it as the word suggestions were either odd or random (one example: I'd write 'Jordan' and it would always suggest 'Peterson' as the next word), and I'd got a weirdly passive aggressive prompt saying I should really purchase a license. Went back to the de-Googled Android keyboard in GrapheneOS
Very cool, I use swipe typing almost exclusively so good to see open models. It just needs to preserve word history for custom words, not sure if it does that.
If only FUTO supported combined keyboard languages without duplicates. Why would there be two separate de and en layouts when multilingual typing is enabled.
edit: NOT guaranteed to be free and open! seems to have a confusing license setup. Boooo! Works good though, I'll take it over Gboard.
This is such a massive deal. This is, as far as I can tell, the first useful free and open Swipe model. This paves the way for things like swipe typing on platforms other than iOS and Android, a major pain point to newcomer OSes.
Futo with the new swipe model is the first android keyboard i've used that I don't feel like i'm compromising vs GBoard.
Integrated speak to text, good autocorrect typing, good autocorrect swiping.
For anyone wondering: the library uses the GPLv3 (good) while the Android keyboard uses the Futo License (shit).
- https://gitlab.futo.org/keyboard/swipe-library/-/blob/master...
- https://github.com/futo-org/android-keyboard/blob/master/LIC...
What's particularly objectionable about the Futo License?
Is it this part?
you may not remove or obscure any functionality in the software related to payment to the Licensor in any copy you distribute to others.
The clause you cited as well as the "Termination" section and the non-commercial restriction make it a non-free license. Besides the direct implications, it also means all software covered by this license is unsuitable for FOSS-only distributions like Debian or F-Droid. It's not entirely clear to me if the license is copyleft; derivative works have similar problems if so.
To add to the license complexity, the model uses another FUTO-written license, though it at least does not seem as bad as the license for the keyboard:
https://huggingface.co/futo-org/futo-swipe/blob/main/LICENSE...
> shit
It's just a commercial license with very mild terms.
Great timing given I just installed SwiftKey since Microsoft has started embedding ads and dark pattern redirects to Bing!
Assuming you mean uninstall, yeah I did the same because of that.
I wasn getting a constant panel from them regarding using the backup feature, that will just keep re appearing.
It was so bad I even moved to GBoard. Not the same, but I'm getting used to.
You meant uninstalled, right ?
It’s unfortunate that the Bing team at Microsoft has so much power. They destroy products for the glory of Bing, and some money. Perhaps it’s about the money. But I feel like Microsoft doesn’t have to make a lot of money on everything they do.
Has to be. I jumped from SwiftKey the moment I heard Microsoft bought it, back in '14 IIRC.
I've been using HeliBoard for a while now, but IIRC the swipe library it uses is from Google (have to install it separately to comply with license). Wonder how this stacks up.
Love swipe typing. Nice to see more keyboards in the space.
On the one hand snapping to the nearest English word is useful. On the other hand it will prevent our language from evolving.
Must say it's a little bit lame that they are boycotting iOS. I will not change phone just to use this app but it would be nice to be able to replace SwiftKey with this.
I'm pretty sure there is no way for them to supply an ios version without having to go through some sort of apple approval process. hardly boycotting to say that you're not about to put up with that crap.
Don't they have to go through a Google approval process for (official) Android? I'm not sure I see this as a big win unless they are strictly supporting GrapheneOS and other de-Googled Androids.
they do, but it's on fdroid too - at that point the play store is simply a nice to have. if google does anything they don't like they can just say okay and keep publishing on fdroid, they have not lost whatever efforts they have invested into android. apple has absolutely no way to just publish an app and let people install it, which at least to my mind delegitimises them as a viable platform. I'm pretty sure if I made open source mobile apps they would be android only, people would be free to take the source and release an ios version under different branding.
I assume it would be feasible for someone else to write an iOS keyboard relying on this model?
Where did they say they were boycotting iOS?
true... there are many better reasons to leave iOS than for a keyboard
boycotting?
This is amazing! It's driven me nuts for a very long time that so many mobile keyboards allow totally non-sequitur nonsensical sequence completions.
In particular, if you end up using the voice input mode of it and have trouble with accuracy, I would giving a try to the biggest model that it supports. It's slower (although really not bad at all on my Galaxy Fold), but it's so nice to have it actually be as accurate as it is.
I settled on the middle model.
I used the FUTO keyboard for a few months but ditched it as the word suggestions were either odd or random (one example: I'd write 'Jordan' and it would always suggest 'Peterson' as the next word), and I'd got a weirdly passive aggressive prompt saying I should really purchase a license. Went back to the de-Googled Android keyboard in GrapheneOS
Very cool, I use swipe typing almost exclusively so good to see open models. It just needs to preserve word history for custom words, not sure if it does that.
The swipe demo on the website is neat! I wasn't expecting to be able to use it with my mouse.
I'm curious how it compares with Microsoft SwiftKey. Obviously, that's not an open-source app, but it would be an interesting benchmark.
seems to be really good
Does anyone know of a FOSS keyboard that supports swiping in Korean? I'm yet to find one
If only FUTO supported combined keyboard languages without duplicates. Why would there be two separate de and en layouts when multilingual typing is enabled.
demo seems worse than heliboard
I've used both extensively and it's a fair bit better, but was significantly worse preupdate