Does anyone know of a FOSS version of this (android keyboard with hexagonal keys?)

Open Source@lemmy.ml – 41 points – 3 months ago

Typewise will have you rethinking your phone's standard keyboard

Contacted typewise, asked if I could purchase apk from them (the pro version or whatever) since I don't use GPlay store and they said no.

Unless there is an open source app, the next stop will be the piracy sub. It may be able to work if you obtain an apk and patch it to think it's paid. While there, it would also be worth defusing data mining components.

Took me 10 second to find LOL. And it's a offline version so It will not connect to android.

And it's a offline version so It will not connect to android.

Not sure I follow, but are you sure about that? However, some things to check for:

does it have the network permission?
AndroidManifest.xml inside it contains if it does, but also app manager or plenty other apps can tell if so because it's relatively straightforward to tell
does it to interprocess communication with other apps? through Intents or some more convoluted way, there's plenty. That's hard to tell.

Most modder nowdays not just provide paid version of app but also cut down most of telementry and tracking stuff. Also I check AndroidManifest it doesn't have any unnecessary permission but still I am not gonna use a close sourced keyboard.

Revisiting this, may I ask where you got the Typewise Pro apk, and also is it safe?

Straight from Popular Modded Apps Forum: Mobilism

Thanks! And, uh, you're confident that this is safe? Sorry to ask again, just need reassurance I guess.

It's a offline version.

Fully agree, patching it is pretty much the only next option available unless OP is fine going back to a regular keyboard

I never even knew you could get a keyboard with this kind of layout 😅

I'm trying it out and it feels oddly comfortable. Obviously muscle memory from the regular layout is getting in the way but I can feel that the devs are onto something.

I can see this being useful, especially if you could scale the space around the characters (i.e. customize the size of the keys). I also think adding more layers like with smaller ortholinear keyboards might be a good idea as well...

Hmm...gonna have to add this to the things to eventually make whenever I get around to learning kotlin/java for android dev.

Hi @z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml, I'm afraid that lemmy.ml might be blocked on Beehaw, but if you do decide to proceed with an open source version of Typewise (Typefool?), please message me and I will seriously consider providing you with a little funding for your efforts.👍

Same line of thinking, if someone in the FOSS space would take up a similar project I would absolutely financially support that. For how good that keyboard feels right now probably even a relatively large sum monthly.

It's a bit different, but Thumb-key is an alternative style keyboard on fdroid

Not exactly that layout, but I can strongly recommend MessagEase. Also optimized for phone use.

Multiling O has a mode like so. You can pretty much make it look/function almost however you want.

That's not open-source, though, or is it?

Not that I can tell. It may even be abandonware. It would make a helluva starting-point for an open-source fork though, if anyone could reach the developer.

Thanks, I'll have to give it a try now haha

Edit: it does not handle automatic language switching and the auto correct is a bit dumb :( otherwise a cool idea.