I was looking for an open source, totally offline keyboard for an Android phone and I just saw this whole situation of F-Droid and pretty much all non-Play-Store apps being blocked in 2027 unless you do some convoluted thing to enable dev mode which is anyway still controlled by Google.
So I was wondering, what is the best reasonable alternative that is on the Play Store to use? For now it is what it is.
If I get more serious on phone security I guess there are better alternatives long term, but for now, I may need to use something on the Play Store.
What do you think of SimpleKeyboard?
An alternative on F-Droid would be HeliKeyboard but like I said, by 2027 it may get blocked by Google. Im hoping someone stops Google from doing this, perhaps the EU can run some anti-monopoly thing, sometimes get random wins that are privacy friendly while at the same time being anti privacy so who knows.
No, this does not affect you as an end user at all.
Yes, source code is available and able to be used for non - commercial purposes.
Yes, FUTO Keyboard is by far the best option on Android.
(Caveat that if you need certain language options this isn’t always the case. But aside from that, anyone recommending any other option is seriously sacrificing features and usability in the name of FOSS purism.)
Does not affect apps on GrapheneOS and doesn’t affect apps that are already on the play store from being distributed elsewhere. Not sure about Fdroid or Izzyondroid but accrescent plans to verify so it wouldn’t affect them either.
I don’t have GrapheneOS, it’s an S26 Ultra, so it is what it is, in this case what would be the best option? Btw this phone has a ridiculous feature called clipboard, and it cannot be disabled as I can see. Even I use another keyboard (im trying some open source ones on the Play Store) it does save it on the default keyboard’s clipboard. So that means when you copy a password it’s there on the clipboard. Any ideas about this?
What phone do you have? So you can do these things without root and screwing up other things? do you have a proper tutorial? I may need to do this, the clipboard feature is actually crazy, from what I’ve looked like people were not able to disable it or at leas that’s what I remember reading.
Well is it really a solution? for how long? according to this they can rugpull it any time:
Google’s “escape hatch” is a trap door
Google says “power users” can “still install” unverified apps. Here’s what that actually looks like:
Delve into System Settings, find About Phone
Tap the build number seven times to enable Developer Mode
Dismiss scare screens about coercion
Enter your PIN
Restart the device
Wait 24 hours
Come back, dismiss more scare screens
Pick “allow temporarily” (7 days) or “allow indefinitely”
Confirm, again, that you understand “the risks”
Nine steps. A mandatory 24-hour cooling-off period. For installing software on a device you own.
Worse: this flow runs entirely through Google Play Services, not the Android OS. Google can change it, tighten it, or kill it at any time, with no OS update required and no consent needed.
I used ADB AppControl on a Samsung Galaxy A56. The instructions are on the website. I’ve used it both ways - both with and without using a PC.
Make sure you have installed an alternative keyboard first!
I uninstalled the Samsung keyboard and the clipboard disappeared too. I was surprised as lots of people on Reddit said they couldn’t get rid of it. The clipboard with the alternative keyboard (Heliboard in my case) works fine and isn’t privacy invasive.
Edit: I got Heliboard from F-Droid, but if you need to get a privacy-centric keyboard from the Google Play Store there are FUTO and Fossify keyboards available. I’ve used both and were happy with them.
Well looks like adbappcontrol is a closed source windows software, so it sorts of defeats the point isn’t it. We don’t know what the software is doing to the phone.