HeliBoard 4.0-alpha1

[Helium314]

Changes since 3.9:

• add background gesture data gathering (Add passive gesture data gathering #2397)
  • requires gesture typing library, see NLnet gesture typing project #2226 and the wiki for info
• add file / image functionality to clipboard history, parts by @slonka (Add image functionality to clipboard history #2538, feat(clipboard): add image pasting #2312, Clipboard image support #490)
• add floating keyboard (Add floating keyboard #2501)
• add Unicode 17.0 emojis, by @kabaww (emoji: add Unicode 17.0 emoji support #2472)
• add separate scale settings for foldedable phones (Add separate scale settings for folded state #2429)
• add touchpad mode on space slide, by @stanissay (Add Touchpad Mode for multi-directional cursor control (port from LeanType) #2438, Edge scrolling in Touchpad mode #2478)
• add setting to customize punctuation suggestions
• add option to disable spell checker suggestion popup on Android 12+ (Please Let Me Disable Pop-Up Suggestions #1881)
• add setting to show only toolbar when a hardware keyboard is detected (Show only toolbar when physical keyboard is connected #1159)
• change autocorrect confidence to a slider
• change narrow key gaps to a slider (hey where to decrease the keys's row and column gaps? #2091, Feature: add adjustable key spacing/gaps #2394)
• remove delay blocking delete swipe right after input, by @octoclonius (fix delete swipe being delayed after letter input #2489, Delete swipe delayed on letter input #2488)
• hide toolbar if device is locked to be sure no clipboard content can be shown (Hide toolbar / suggestion strip if device is locked #2471, Shows clipboard content and toolbar on lock screen #1909)
• adjust capitalization of suggestions on changing shift state (When capitalizing the ending of a word, the entire word becomes capitalized if the caps lock is left on #2162, Don't autocorrect using capitalized suggestions #2164)
• allow autocorrect if word is all caps
• make icons work as key hints
• vibrate for repeated inputs, by @glen-nicol (Feature: vibrate for repeated inputs #381 #2355, Add haptic/vibration feedback when holding delete and moving cursor with space #381)
• improve custom font handling, by @qappell (Centralize keyboard typeface resolution for custom font consistency #2400)
• improve font scaling for high and narrow keyboards
• tune active gesture data gathering word distribution, by @theeclecticdyslexic
• fix potential security issue when restoring backup from manipulated zip file, by @PrivateBasicsApp (fix: prevent zip-slip in backup restore via canonical path validation #2463)
• fix crash when using force incognito toolbar key, with help by @eranl ("Force incognito mode" crashes keyboard upon toggling #2515)
• fix language switch key not being shown when it should be, by @eranl (Show language switch key when using system languages #2293)
• fix bugs with inline password suggestions, with help of @eranl (Display bug with inline suggestions #2103, Try to fix external suggestions width #2108)
• update HCESAR layout, by @davidzx84 (Update hcesar puctuation marks popups #2393)
• update Kaitag layout, by @alkaitagi (Kaitag update #2544)
• change default popup on Persian key ا, by @nugraha-abd (Change default popup key on letter ا in Persian language #2541)
• upgrade Khipro input, by @qomarhsn (Replace Khipro JSON mapping with m17n spec and runtime interpreter #2460)
• minor fixes and improvements

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This discussion was created from the release HeliBoard 4.0-alpha1.

[maruuk]

Thank you for adding the ability to copy images to the clipboard. I noticed a few minor things that could be improved.

1. The paste icon on the clipboard suggestion wasn't as close to the edge before. In my opinion, it looked nicer. Now it looks like it's pushed in there.

Before

After

2. I discovered something strange. After copying an image in the browser and closing the tab and then the browser, the preview of the copied image disappears from the suggestion bar. It's still in the clipboard.
3. Attempting to paste an image where it can't be pasted causes it to be copied again.

[Helium314]

The paste icon on the clipboard suggestion wasn't as close to the edge before

fixed

I discovered something strange. After copying an image in the browser and closing the tab and then the browser, the preview of the copied image disappears from the suggestion bar. It's still in the clipboard.

Can you still paste the image using android paste, e.g. long-press and paste from that menu?
Behind the scenes, the browser provides a content URI for that image, and if the URI is invalid (e.g. browser closed), there is no image to be shown.

Attempting to paste an image where it can't be pasted causes it to be copied again.

I found several apps that claim not to support content input, but happily accept pasting from clipboard (e.g. joplin, logseq).
So what happens when you try to paste an image where it can't be pasted, I assume the user knows that it can / should be pasted there. So Heliboard puts the data in the system clipboard and uses the android paste-from-clipboard (like ctrl+v). After that it puts back the old content.

[maruuk]

Can you still paste the image using android paste, e.g. long-press and paste from that menu?

Only by selecting from the clipboard.

Behind the scenes, the browser provides a content URI for that image, and if the URI is invalid (e.g. browser closed), there is no image to be shown.

Would it be possible to get a preview from the clipboard instead of the link?

So Heliboard puts the data in the system clipboard and uses the android paste-from-clipboard (like ctrl+v). After that it puts back the old content.

I think it would be good, if possible, if in such a situation nothing happened or the keyboard display a message that the image cannot be pasted here.

I experienced a crash. If you copy an image in the browser while using a different keyboard, force close the browser in Android settings, and then switch to HeliBoard, the keyboard crashes and you’ll have to force close it.
HeliBoard_log_2026-06-13_12-27-39.txt

[Helium314]

Would it be possible to get a preview from the clipboard instead of the link?

Technically probably yes, but since the item is not available it the system clipboard any more, this would be mixing up 2 system clipboard and internal clipboard, which I want to avoid (prone to bugs).

I experienced a crash

Interesting... this means first time querying the clipboard size succeds, but getting the data doesn't work. IMO in that case querying the size should also fail, but that's Google's decision. Fixed.

[maruuk]

Thanks for the quick fix.

Technically probably yes, but since the item is not available it the system clipboard any more, this would be mixing up 2 system clipboard and internal clipboard, which I want to avoid (prone to bugs).

I see. And would it be possible to not display the clipboard suggestion then? It's actually useless; the image won't be pasted anyway.

I know it's a minor thing, but it bothers you when you're a perfectionist...

[PrivateBasicsApp]

Would it be possible to get a preview from the clipboard instead of the link?

Technically probably yes, but since the item is not available it the system clipboard any more, this would be mixing up 2 system clipboard and internal clipboard, which I want to avoid (prone to bugs).

From an UX perspective, empty space is what we want to avoid here: the user copied something, so an empty chip just looks like a bug.

To keep it simple we can hide the suggestion whenever the image won't render. The one downside is the user loses the confirmation that something was copied.

Probably the best would be to tell a recoverable URI apart from a dead one. If the image can still be pasted, show a placeholder ("Image" with an icon) you can tap. If the URI is dead, don't show the suggestion at all.