Heliboard
Hacker ApprovedRanked 6 of 12 keyboard apps by recommenders
Free, open-source Android keyboard praised for two-finger and one-finger swipe typing and customization; the most common caveat is weak autocorrect.
Free, open-source Android keyboard praised for two-finger and one-finger swipe typing and customization; the most common caveat is weak autocorrect.
20 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 17
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 85%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 17 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Two-finger swipe typing
“Heliboard also great because it supports two finger swipe which is huge ergonomic improvement”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “FUTO Swipe – A new swipe typing model” “Heliboard has had great swipe for a while and has two finger swipe which is killer feature”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “FUTO Swipe – A new swipe typing model” “Heliboard (f-droid) supports two thumb swipe! Not as good as nintype but works very well”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “FUTO Swipe – A new swipe typing model” - Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “FUTO Swipe – A new swipe typing model”
- Comment from 22 Feb 2026 in “Keybee: A Keyboard Designed for Smartphones”
- Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “FUTO Swipe – A new swipe typing model”
- Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “FUTO Swipe – A new swipe typing model”
- Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “FUTO Swipe – A new swipe typing model”
Free and open source
“It's 100% FOSS, but can also use the binary blob from google's gesture typing library”
Comment from 3 Mar 2026 in “I've been running GrapheneOS on my Pixel Fold for over half a year” “Heliboard is good, customizable, and actually open source - GPL3.”
Comment from 6 Sep 2026 in “GrapheneOS Overhauled Default Apps and Secure Clipboard” “free and open alternative for swipe keyboard”
Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “Motorola GrapheneOS devices will be bootloader unlockable/relockable” Accurate one-finger swipe typing
“One finger swipe on heliboard works at least as well as gboard or this futo one.”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “FUTO Swipe – A new swipe typing model” “it's the most accurate for glide typing I've seen”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “FUTO: Keyboards Shouldn't Connect to the Internet”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Autocorrect frustrates or breaks typing
“It kinda sucks but at least it doesn't "fix" your message after you type everything”
Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone” “its autocorrect gets stuck in the mud all the time”
Comment from 6 Sep 2026 in “GrapheneOS Overhauled Default Apps and Secure Clipboard” “the autocorrect for heliboard is beyond atrocious and renders the keyboard unusable”
Comment from 7 Sep 2026 in “GrapheneOS Overhauled Default Apps and Secure Clipboard” Behind Google Keyboard on swipe
“It is way ahead the stock keyboard experience but far behind Google Keyboard's”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Phone is about to stop being yours” “does a better job with EN swipe than Heliboard”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “FUTO Swipe – A new swipe typing model”
Other keyboard apps people recommend
The four most recommended other keyboard apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gboard | 59 | 43 | 58% | 10 | — | — |
| FUTO Keyboard | 51 | 22 | 70% | 12 | 1 yr4 owners | Approved |
| FUTO Swipe | 40 | 18 | 69% | 1 | — | — |
| iOS keyboard | 28 | 182 | 13% | 8 | 10 yrs9 owners | — |
| HeliboardThis page | 17 | 3 | 85% | 7 | — | Approved |
What people said
28 of the 30 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“FUTO Keyboard or Heliboard (both FOSS) will give you key symbols without shifting”
“the autocorrect for heliboard is beyond atrocious and renders the keyboard unusable”
“its autocorrect gets stuck in the mud all the time”
“Heliboard is good, customizable, and actually open source - GPL3.”
“does a better job with EN swipe than Heliboard”
“One finger swipe on heliboard works at least as well as gboard or this futo one.”
“Heliboard saved me from actual despair”
“Heliboard also great because it supports two finger swipe which is huge ergonomic improvement”
“my keyboard let's me swipe with two fingers at the same time”
“Can't live without two finger swipe”
“it has two finger swipe, which is more than 2x better than one finger swipe”
“supports two thumb swiping and works very well”
“Heliboard (f-droid) supports two thumb swipe! Not as good as nintype but works very well”
“Heliboard has had great swipe for a while and has two finger swipe which is killer feature”
“I've been using https://github.com/HeliBorg/HeliBoard for ever, but it does not have sviping.”
“demo seems worse than heliboard”
“I think it has multilingual swipe input”
“It's not perfect, but has improved”
“which has a swipe-type option”
“Heliboard is an option. No gesture typing out of the box but you can install an external library for that and it works good.”
“It is way ahead the stock keyboard experience but far behind Google Keyboard's”
“I just made a quick guide to migrate from Swiftkey to Heliboard”
“free and open alternative for swipe keyboard”
“It's 100% FOSS, but can also use the binary blob from google's gesture typing library”
“Heliboard does two finger swipe! Not as well as nintype but very passable!”
“It kinda sucks but at least it doesn't "fix" your message after you type everything”
“at at a glance it seems...suboptimal.”
“it's the most accurate for glide typing I've seen”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.