this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2024
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Privacy

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If you use the privacy respecting Gboard alternative called FUTO keyboard, you've probably noticed that the built in swipe typing is HOT GARBAGE. (Typing this currently with two thumbs for this exact reason.)

Most keyboards improve their swipe algorithms by simply spying on you and logging your typing data. FUTO isn't about that, so they have built a simple webpage based typing game that you can use to improve their system in an ethical and voluntary manner! Just swipe the website's keyboard to type a provided sentence.

I love this, they can crowdsource the improvement without invading privacy!

Share with any relevant communities you're a part of. The more data, the better this gets.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

Just did 1,010 words!

Found out that the skip button skips the word, not the prompt.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I thought so too! FUTO is a project worth supporting in my opinion.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago

Isn't FUTO an organization that named their keyboard application after themselves?

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Pitched in 100 words! Definitely some open source swiping keyboard gesture databases would be helpful for everyone.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago

Agreed! I use Heliboard but am glad you pitch in some words.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I just gave them 500 new data samples. :) My thumb is sore.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I'm trying really hard to not revert back to Swiftkey (again, as I do every time I run out of patience with a new privacy respecting keyboard), and I don't even use swipe typing. I'm still hoping that the more I type the better the predictions will get but after using it for a few months I feel like I'm just adapting to bad predictions rather than the predictions getting better.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 week ago (4 children)

I'm using this one. https://github.com/Helium314/HeliBoard Once I downloaded dictionary for my native language+ English that came preinstalled, and granted permission to learn from my typing, it's pretty good.

Not as good as swift key, but enough for my needs. I don't use swipe typing but someone I know said it is alright.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

I tried it a while ago but found the predictions were bad. Maybe I'll give it another shot

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

I was skeptical first but after a day or two or became good and now after a month I can't explain why I didn't make the switch earlier it's perfect for my use and I feel more in line with my values

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Do you have the LLM fine tuning enabled? Mine is pretty good after a few months of training it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

Wait you can train the Futo keyboard? I tried it a while ago and noticed the poor accuracy and decided to shelve it for a while.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

Yeah, it's been on and to answer questions below, no it doesn't affect my battery.

I'm having small problems like suggesting capitalized words in the middle of a sentence and suggesting capitalized words as a different word than the non capitalized ones. Like it'll suggest "That" in the middle of a sentence and also "that" at the same time, so two of the three slots are taken up.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Does it eat a lot of battery for you?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Does that affect your battery much? The warning pushed me away from trying it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

No noticeable difference.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Please everybody do this. This is sure to help other keyboards, too.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago

Is it? The FTL is restrictive about who is allowed to redistribute and modify anything covered by it. Is this data covered under a different license?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago

Are they going to share this data with the open source community or is this just for their proprietary keyboard?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

What a cool idea!
As an avid swipe user, I'll try to send as many samples as I can!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

FUTO was the joke naming we'd use for files in an old job as there was this one guy who's files were always "FileName-Final" or "FileName-Final2" or "FileName-UseThisOne". So FUTO (Final Use This One) became the name for the most up to date versions

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I've never used swipe typing, so my data is probably garbage, but its kinda fun.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

Data is data! You're a use case, regardless of swipe ability.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

As are a bunch of other people. It helps.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

This is amazing. I really want to ditch Gboard. I hope this Futo can replace it completely.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

Feel like I'm destroying the dataset with QWERTY so I'll wait until QWERTZ is available :)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm on iOS, but I gave it a few minutes of swiping to help out.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Would love to help, but they need a way more optimized site or a faster server, whichever is causing the slowness. Waited a full minute and barely got the keyboard to load.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Pretty sure I hugged it to death with the post. Was working fine for the last couple of days.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Worked fine for me. Might just have been the first rush.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (9 children)

They should simply allow collecting this data via opt-in. I'd gladly provide it, but I don't want it to be opt-out, because then this feels sneaky.

[–] dracs 2 points 1 week ago

That would require a lot of data privacy concerns to be addressed. Even if it's an explicit opt-in. The current method uses sample text which can't include PII. Using user supplied text would almost guarantee they'd get names and other PII in their data set.

I also imagine it's harder to train the model when you don't know exactly what the user was trying to type. I.e. Was the swipe detection wrong, or did the user delete the word because they changed their mind on what to write?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The one thing I really don't like about it, that really prevents me from using the keyboard is that when I misspell something, and it autocorrects, and then I want to add something else to it, hitting the backspace key removes the autocorrection, with no way to disable it (at least from what I've seen), I cannot stand that, which is why I've still been using gboard, but without network permissions because I'm on GrapheneOS.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

And I've just gotten used to Dvorak...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

They're probably getting this part of the project started, and might go for more once this works

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Cool, I will help too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Although I don't use FUTO keyborad, I don't think collecting typing data is a problem, as long as it is done locally. There shouldn't be a binary choice between privacy and better user experience.

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