HeliBoard vs Thumb-Key
Side-by-side comparison of two open source alternatives
HeliBoard
HeliBoard is a privacy-conscious open-source keyboard, based on AOSP / OpenBoard. Does not use internet permission, and thus is 100% offline. Features: Add dictionaries for suggestions and spell check build your own, or get them here, or in the experimental section (quality may vary) additional dictionaries for emojis or scientific symbols can be used to provide suggestions (similar to "emoji search") note that for Korean layouts, suggestions only work using this dictionary, the tools in the dictionary repository are not able to create working dictionaries Customize keyboard themes (style, colors and background image) can follow the system's day/night setting on Android 10+ (and on some versions of Android 9) can follow dynamic colors for Android 12+ Customize keyboard layouts (only available when disabling use system languages) Customize special layouts, like symbols, number, or functional key layout Multilingual typing Glide typing (only with closed source library ☹️) library not included in the app, as there is no compatible open source library available can be extracted from GApps packages ("swypelibs"), or downloaded here (click on the file and then "raw" or the tiny download button) Clipboard history One-handed mode Split keyboard (only available if the screen is large enough) Number pad Backup and restore your settings and learned word / history data
Thumb-Key
Thumb-Key is a privacy-conscious smart keyboard, made specifically for your thumbs. It features a 3x3 grid layout, and uses swipes for the less common letters. Its easy to learn, and designed for fast typing speeds. Instead of relying on profit-driven, privacy-offending word and sentence prediction for accuracy, as do most popular phone keyboards like Gboard and Swiftkey, Thumb-Key uses large keys with predictable positions, to prevent your eyes from hunting and pecking for letters. As the key positions get ingrained into your muscle memory, eventually you'll be able to appromixate the fast speeds of touch-typing, your eyes never having to leave the text edit area. This project is a follow-up to the now unmaintained (and closed-source) MessagEase Keyboard, which is its main inspiration.
| Feature | HeliBoard | Thumb-Key |
|---|---|---|
| License | GPL-3.0-only | AGPL-3.0-only |
| Install sources | F-DroidGitHubIzzyOnDroid | F-DroidGitHubIzzyOnDroid |
| Categories | ProductivityKeyboard | ProductivityBrowserKeyboard |
| Features | Ad-FreeOpen SourceNo Tracking | Ad-FreeOpen SourceNo Tracking |
| Platforms | Android | Android |
| Website | ||
| Source code |