Trying Open-Source Keyboards

Trying Open-Source Keyboards This year I tried several keyboards that offer relatively better privacy: Xiaopeng, Tongwen, Yuyan, and Gboard. Here is a brief account of the experience. Xiaopeng This is my main keyboard. Its strengths include: It imports existing Wusong and other ZY configurations, covering most common words. It supports uU character decomposition; typing uUweiwenchangnv, for example, produces the character li. Its v mode enters special characters and symbols by initials, such as vfjz for “⸺”. Swiping left on Backspace quickly deletes text. Sliding on the Space bar moves the cursor; when candidates are shown, it can move among pinyin syllables for editing. The official documentation recommends two voice-input apps that work alongside it. I tried them and they work, though there are drawbacks below. Swiping up enters a key’s secondary symbol. Weaknesses: ...

2025-09-18 · 2 mins · 3rd