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submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by extremeboredom@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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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[-] art@lemmy.world 5 points 6 hours ago

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

[-] 0xD@infosec.pub 4 points 13 hours ago

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

[-] zerozaku@lemmy.world 6 points 15 hours ago

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

[-] sag@lemm.ee 3 points 15 hours ago

Cool, I will help too.

[-] jqubed@lemmy.world 35 points 1 day ago
[-] extremeboredom@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago

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

[-] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago

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

[-] trevor@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 day 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?

[-] hperrin@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago

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

[-] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 20 points 1 day ago

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

[-] Ok_imagination@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

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

[-] LiveLM@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

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

[-] akilou@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 day ago

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.

[-] S13Ni@lemmy.studio 19 points 1 day ago

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.

[-] nameisnotimportant@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day 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

[-] akilou@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago

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

[-] Undertaker@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago

Does not have swipe except when using a Google library

[-] iturnedintoanewt@lemm.ee 2 points 23 hours ago

The Google library is fully offline as far as everyone knows. Sure it's a binary blob and projects such as this linked here aim to finally break free from that dependency. But for the time being, I'll be Ok with that offline blob until this futo becomes a viable alternative.

[-] extremeboredom@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

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

[-] BakedCatboy@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day 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.

[-] akilou@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day 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.

[-] polluteyourjorts@lemmy.one 3 points 1 day ago

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

[-] extremeboredom@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

No noticeable difference.

[-] exu@feditown.com 3 points 1 day ago

Does it eat a lot of battery for you?

[-] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world -2 points 14 hours ago

why invade when the gates are flung open willingly?

[-] Chais@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 hours ago

You can't possibly have misunderstood the issue so fundamentally, can you?

[-] extremeboredom@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago
[-] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago

whats on second. whos on first.

[-] JustMarkov@lemmy.ml -2 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

needs your help

I'm not gonna help proprietary software, the developers of which are trying to flip the definition of open-source.

[-] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 5 points 1 day ago

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.

[-] extremeboredom@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

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

[-] Chais@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 hours ago

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

[-] Ashyr@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago

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

[-] MutilationWave@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago

Yeah I love swiping to type so I use Gboard but I gave them 101 words to help. I'd gladly switch if they can make it this good.

[-] quantenzitrone@lemmings.world 9 points 1 day ago

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

[-] extremeboredom@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

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

[-] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

As are a bunch of other people. It helps.

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[-] HeneryHawk@reddthat.com 9 points 1 day 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

[-] dog_@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

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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[-] kitnaht@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

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@programming.dev 2 points 17 hours 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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[-] Imhotep@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago
[-] DeeBeeDouble@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago

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

[-] Boomkop3@reddthat.com 4 points 1 day ago

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

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this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2024
263 points (99.6% liked)

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