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Re: Curious what you use for offline keyboard/STT (speech to text) on Android

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Arno Welzel wrote:
>> To that end, it would be useful to know what other people use in terms of
>>   Q: What offline keyboard, if any, do you use on Android? 
> 
> GBoard - works offline as well, at least on a Google Pixel 6a.
> 
> Another alternative is <https://voiceinput.futo.org>
> 
>>   Q: What offline speech to text, if any, do you use on Android?
> 
> Built on speech output - works offline as well, at least on a Google
> Pixel 6a.

Thanks Arno,

Thanks for your helpful advice, as I had figured most people would be
using whatever their default's are (e.g., google or samsung mostly).

Apparently, both Samsung Keyboard & Google's Gboard come with a built-in
mic button so both support offline speech-to-text as long as an offline
language pack is installed separately by the user. 
 Google: <https://support.google.com/gboard/answer/11197787>
 Samsung: <https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS10001592/>

As you can imagine, I don't have a Google or Samsung account where, in my
experience, I can get the Google but not the Samsung language packs w/o it.

Note that I'm aware that the Internet "says" you can download the Samsung
language packs but in my experience, you can't so this may be a YMMV case.

But, I'm always seeking generic solutions that work for everyone, even
those on Motorola, as much as I had hated my Moto G from Google.

The advice of FUTO is a good start as it's not in this article I read.
 <https://www.umevo.ai/blogs/ume-all-posts/talk-to-text-android-your-complete-guide-to-seamless-voice-to-text-in-2025>

But it's on the Windows Forum (of all places):
 <https://windowsforum.com/threads/futo-keyboard-the-offline-first-android-keyboard-for-true-on-device-privacy.405419/>

Here's the first rough ad hoc draft of my guide for installing Futo... 
1. Go to <https://voiceinput.futo.org/>
2. Press the Download button <https://voiceinput.futo.org/#download>
3. <https://voiceinput.futo.org/VoiceInput/standalone.apk>
   Name: standalone.apk
   Size: 71142264 bytes (67 MiB)
   SHA256: A515FEC7187188F66A789EE98CA0578BD86F5299F0E0B28D861D3DE2FF97A975
4. Install it and open the Futo voice input app
5. Go to Models (or Languages & Models).
6. Find your language 
7. Choose a model size
8. Tap download
9. Enable it as your "Voice Assistant"

Whoa! I've not had to use the "Voice Assistant" yet. Ever. Why now?
Hmmm... (have I ever mentioned that keyboards are strikingly complex?)

Android has (at least) 3 different ways to do stt (maybe more).
 a. IME (like Sayboard/Vosk, and, Whisper half the time)
 b. Service (like Whisper, half the time)
 c. Digital assistant (apparently it's what Futo uses)
These drive me nuts because they step on each other all the time.

There are maybe more (since the Copilot app, for example, has its own mic
button which is outside of those three, but I don't understand that one).

Looking up why Futo wants to be the "Default Assistant", apparently that's
because it's the only way it can hijack the long-press of the power button
or the microphone icon in the browser's search bar.

But luckily, Futo can also be used as an IME, apparently.

Interestingly, Futo uses Whisper (which I'm familiar with).
 <https://github.com/futo-org/voice-input>
So, just like it's Sayboard/Vosk, it's Futo/Whisper as the duo.
Adding Whisper is why the standalone.apk was so massive (67MB).
Apparently Futo defaults to the English-39 Whisper models.
That's good 'cuz you want the "tiny" equivalent for starters.

That standalone.apk apparently does NOT include the Futo keyboard.
It is just the voice engine.

To get the Futo keyboard, we go to <https://keyboard.futo.org/>
 <https://keyboard.futo.org/keyboard.apk>
It's even bigger because it's the whole shebang (keboard + whisper).
 Name: keyboard.apk
 Size: 135895729 bytes (129 MiB)
 SHA256: B5BDCE62468FEEC275183D1DA7C8BA18386FDBD2F90A1F7B0E246E386D529E0D

This is getting long so I'll see what I can figure out about Futo.
Thanks for that good advice. Much appreciated. We learn from each other.
-- 
On Usenet, wizened old men discuss topics of interest, where each adds
their own flavor of value so that the group, as a whole, benefits greatly.

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Thread

Curious what you use for offline keyboard/STT (speech to text) on Android Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-04-27 18:58 -0600
  Re: Curious what you use for offline keyboard/STT (speech to text) on Android Arno Welzel <usenet@arnowelzel.de> - 2026-04-28 09:48 +0200
    Re: Curious what you use for offline keyboard/STT (speech to text) on Android Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-04-28 14:48 -0600
      Re: Curious what you use for offline keyboard/STT (speech to text) on Android Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-04-28 19:05 -0600
  Re: Curious what you use for offline keyboard/STT (speech to text) on Android Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2026-04-28 09:05 +0100
    Re: Curious what you use for offline keyboard/STT (speech to text) on Android Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-04-28 13:32 -0600
      Re: Curious what you use for offline keyboard/STT (speech to text) on Android Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2026-04-28 21:20 +0100
        Re: Curious what you use for offline keyboard/STT (speech to text) on Android Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-04-28 19:34 -0600
          Re: Curious what you use for offline keyboard/STT (speech to text) on Android AJL <noemail@none.com> - 2026-04-29 02:56 +0000
            Re: Curious what you use for offline keyboard/STT (speech to text) on Android Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-04-29 01:25 -0600
              Re: Curious what you use for offline keyboard/STT (speech to text) on Android Richmond <dnomhcir@gmx.com> - 2026-04-29 09:28 +0100
                Re: Curious what you use for offline keyboard/STT (speech to text) on Android AJL <noemail@none.com> - 2026-04-29 16:02 +0000
                Re: Curious what you use for offline keyboard/STT (speech to text) on Android Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-04-29 12:15 -0600

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