[whycome]

Oh and it's distinctly worse on the iOS 26 beta. Certain text boxes (like HN) are a nightmare.

I used to smoothly type without looking on iOS. It was like magic. Now, it's just a mess. I think gboard on Android is the current top experience.

[W3zzy]

FOSS heliboard is a strong competitor to Gboard.

[dotancohen]

I just tried to use Heliboard. It has many rough edges, I'll file issues to see it they can be improved.

For one thing, the voice typing is useless. It respects neither the language of the full keyboard nor the language shown in its interface. And that separate interface needs to be brought up separately, thus requiring many taps - exactly what I'm avoiding by using voice typing in the first place.

Selecting text then pressing the Delete key does not delete that selection in Hebrew or Arabic. It does work in English.

The swiping in English works fine - probably because that library is lifted directly from Gboard. So the idea is independence from propriety Gboard is not reality anyway. Swiping does not work in Hebrew or Arabic - which together with the lack of voice typing means that I can not use this keyboard at all.

I do like the arrow keys and selection buttons in the toolbar. Gboard has that in a seperate pane, but in the toolbar is much more convenient.

[W3zzy]

I use the swipe library (Glide typing) but you need to install that seperately.

Apparently the voice input is not coming from Heliboard. You could use an alternative service like futo voice input.

https://voiceinput.futo.org/

[dotancohen]

I'll check out out, thank you.

[W3zzy]

Alas, I don't think it's available on iOS.

[dotancohen]

I use Android as my daily driver.