I’ve been using the Openboard keyboard on Android for a while but it seems like the developers have either disappeared, abandoned the project, or are otherwise just MIA/not releasing new versions.
In case anyone was still using the old version, was just wanting to let people know that there is a fork that is continuing development of it and has already had some improvements, though it’s considered beta/development for now: https://github.com/Helium314/openboard/tree/new
According to their Github, here are some of the current differences and changes:
spoiler
Debug version can be installed along OpenBoard
Allow users to add and replace built-in dictionaries
modified / improved from openboard-team#569 and openboard-team#578
some AOSP dictionaries are available here
experimental dictionaries with next-word suggestions created from sentence lists are also available, but they may contain unwanted words, and may be missing other features
dictionary files starting with "main_" replace the built-in dictionary for the language, all other names work as add-on dictionaries
emoji dictionaries can be used to get emoji suggestions
Fixes / improvements regarding suggestions
Remove suggestions by long pressing on suggestion strip while the more suggestions popup is open (suggestions get re-added if they are entered again)
Allow using contacts for suggestions
several small adjustments and fixes
Reduce amount of unwanted automatic space insertions, openboard-team#576
Add multi-lingual typing, slightly modified from openboard-team#586, openboard-team#593
Allow loading an external library to enable gesture typing, openboard-team#3
based on wordmage's work
tested with Google libraries and others (when building with the rename)
Theming: allow adjusting keyboard colors, openboard-team#124
Optionally make the navigation bar follow current theme, #4
Allow defining day/night themes
Remove suggestions by long pressing on suggestion strip while the more suggestions popup is open, openboard-team#106
suggestions get re-added if they are entered again
Optionally add typed words to system personal dictionary
Improve issues with emoji deletion (still happens with delete gesture), #22
Add Unicode 15 emojis, openboard-team#25
Better currency selection, #21 / https://github.com/Helium314/openboard/commit/0d1106649f95ecbd7d8f6d950428547666059564
Reduce space between keys, with option to use old values, #8
Fix number row not split in split keyboard view, #27
Fix issue with spell checker incorrectly flagging words before a period as wrong on newer Android versions, openboard-team#679
maybe not properly fixed, this causes some other issues
Fix always-dark settings on some Android versions, #69
Fix bug with space before word being deleted in some apps / input fields, https://github.com/Helium314/openboard/commit/ce0bf06545c4547d3fc5791cc769508db0a89e87
Allow using auto theme on some devices with Android 9
Add number pad
Overhauled language settings
Updated translations
Open dictionary files with the app
Add more options to the language switch key
Idk for real. I had to resetup my appearance and it looks slick and nice, but don’t know if I had the same setting possible on the other fork. My German keyboard has the special characters of the language, didn’t configured this on the other app and confuses me a little bit, now I have to slide to the äöüß keys but this brings better word recognition. Overall I prefer it over the other fork. Manual adding gesture typing wasn’t complicated if you know where it is.
Here: https://github.com/erkserkserks/openboard/tree/master/app/src/main/jniLibs
PS since android handle both forks as the same app, you have to uninstall the other one first.