Hacker's Keyboard for Android
Hacker's Keyboard is a free keyboard application for Google Android that works well as an all-purpose keyboard but also specifically for administrative tasks.
Google rolled out Gboard recently, an update of the Google Keyboard for Android application which introduced search capabilities and a line on top of the keyboard that would not go away.
I did use the Google Keyboard app on my Android device up until that point, but made the decision to look for an Android keyboard alternative as I did not like the direction and focus of development.
A search for the best Android keyboards revealed hundreds of top lists which all listed the same five, ten or fifteen keyboard applications; all popular choices but not a simple application that puts you in control.
Hacker's Keyboard for Android
Enter Hacker's Keyboard for Android. The application requires no extra permissions, which is always a good sign. It is completely free, the source code is available on GitHub, and it requires no Internet connection to work properly.
You need to allow the application to function as a keyboard, and set it as the default keyboard application after installation. You may also want to download dictionary files provided by the author of the application to add support for those languages.
The keyboard uses a four row layout by default. You can change that to a full five row keyboard layout instead which adds a lot of new characters to the keyboard interface including Ctrl, Tab, arrow keys, or Esc.
The keyboard displays suggestions as you type in the top row. You can disable this completely in the application if you don't require that functionality.
While we are at it. The settings are quite extensive. You find plenty of options to change the visual appearance of the keyboard interface, input methods, and key behavior settings.
The latter ships with a couple of interesting options. You may define gesture actions for instance, enable auto-capitalization, or configure sliding key events.
You may also set up a permanent notification for quick access, or disable quick fixes which auto-correct common issues.
Closing Words
Hacker's Keyboard is a plain soft keyboard application for Android. It does not ship with AI, phone home functionality, and does not suffer from feature overload. It works really well, offers many customization options, and offers full keyboard layout support.
This is without doubt one of the best keyboard apps for Android. It is not for all users obviously. If you like search for instance, you won't get that here.
One downside: some keys, slash and backslash for instances, are missing from the full keyboard layout (they are available when you long-press on certain keys though).
Now You: Which keyboard app do you use?
Thanks for the tip Martin.
It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.
What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?
2G?
Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.
Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??
@Martin
Your website has gone insane.
When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.
@Tachy @Martin Brinkmann
” Your website has gone insane. ”
Same here. Has happened several times.
@Tachy,
@Martin P.,
For over two weeks now,
I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
For the time being,
it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.
@tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.
Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).
But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.
>”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”
The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.
I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.
I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402
It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.
Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?
Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?
I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]
@Martin
You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.
@Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[
@Martin
The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/
And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.
What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL
The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)
How about other things that matter:
Drop survival?
Screen toughness?
Degree of water and dust protection?