In my opinion, the best one is the heliboard.
this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2025
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HeliBoard let's you move the cursor by swiping on the space bar. Is that what iOS does?
Thanks, that's exactly what I'm looking for
Just a heads up, glide typing requires loading a closed source library in Heliboard. Instructions are in the readme and it's pretty straightforward, but it's something to be aware of.
Why have we had to live without an open source version for so long?
I'm not sure what glide typing is but I installed the keyboard and I can move the cursor with the spacebar.
Also known as gesture typing or swype, typing by dragging your finger for each word rather than tapping each letter.
This is on pretty much all keyboards. It's on the standard G Board even. Look into the settings of whatever keyboard you're already using, it's likely just turned off.
Why is there so much removed in these comments?
Yeah, some of what I wrote got removed by a mod too. In the modlog, here's the link they provided as the reason why: https://lemmy.ml/comment/16469376
Thanks for the link! In my opinion if people are learning about Open Source every time this comes up, it should only be the misinfo that gets removed, or they should just make a megathread for FUTO and moderate mentions everywhere else.
It might be a discussion the mods have seen n times, but for lots of us who aren't online all the time, it was the first time, and we got removed with no warning.
Its so disconcerting to come back to your discussion and see everything removed.
People promoting proprietary software, which directly goes against the rules and purpose of this community
Oh shit is Lemmy (at this instance) going the way of reddit? I don't like mods much at all. Shouldn't I decide what to read or not?
Unless is was completely off topic or something horrible I guess.
What I came back to find out...
removed
Thanks folks! Floris and floris and heliboard do exactly what I'm looking for, floris seems better in my cojple of bours of testing
- Unexpected Keyboard - also has a vertical cursor slide key.
- Thumb-Key - optional setting. Also works intuitively for text deletion on backspace. Text selection too but that's buggy.
Pretty sure most all of them do that?
This is a very basic feature, you have a lot of options to choose from like the other comments have suggested. I use Heliboard personally with glide typing.
FlorisBoard is a good option, very customizable too https://github.com/florisboard/florisboard
I also use that, mainly because of the Gboard theme (called FloriStyle). Makes it kinda like Gboard except open source and not from Google, which is exactly what I wanted. It has basically the same functions (except for typing suggestions, that's still being worked ob) but I'm pretty sure it's more customizable, even aside from the themes.
unexpected keyboard also does this, as well as a dedicated arrow keys button. it's also open source and on both fdroid and play store.
This is a stock Samsung Keyboard feature
They want an Open Source app...
Works just fine in Gboard too.