# Heliboard

17 Hacker News commenters recommended Heliboard and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free, open-source Android keyboard praised for two-finger and one-finger swipe typing and customization; the most common caveat is weak autocorrect.

## Why people recommend it

- Two-finger swipe typing (8 comments): "Heliboard also great because it supports two finger swipe which is huge ergonomic improvement" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48657750)) "Heliboard has had great swipe for a while and has two finger swipe which is killer feature" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48656932)) "Heliboard (f-droid) supports two thumb swipe! Not as good as nintype but works very well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48657565))
- Free and open source (3 comments): "It's 100% FOSS, but can also use the binary blob from google's gesture typing library" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47231464)) "Heliboard is good, customizable, and actually open source - GPL3." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49591777)) "free and open alternative for swipe keyboard" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47256017))
- Accurate one-finger swipe typing (2 comments): "One finger swipe on heliboard works at least as well as gboard or this futo one." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48658708)) "it's the most accurate for glide typing I've seen" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46092952))

## What people warn about

- Autocorrect frustrates or breaks typing (3 comments): "It kinda sucks but at least it doesn't "fix" your message after you type everything" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47004150)) "its autocorrect gets stuck in the mud all the time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49591956)) "the autocorrect for heliboard is beyond atrocious and renders the keyboard unusable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49592222))
- Behind Google Keyboard on swipe (2 comments): "It is way ahead the stock keyboard experience but far behind Google Keyboard's" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47946495)) "does a better job with EN swipe than Heliboard" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48662082))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Google Keyboard](https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-keyboard.md): 11 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Heliboard", https://hackerapproved.com/p/heliboard/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).