GIF search

[bluesky509]

Any chance gif searching would ever be added? Not sure of any other keyboards that have it other than Gboard.

[D3SOX]

I think there is a Giphy API and an SDK (which is proprietary). For privacy reasons I would implement it using the API, similar to Signal (which is also open source) and it should be no problem.

[kojid0]

So florisboard has internet access permissions? 🤔

[RickyM7]

So florisboard has internet access permissions? 🤔

@kojid0 No, and I'd really like it to stay that way, but maybe this feature can be added as dictionaries are added on some keyboards, i.e. adding this feature as an extra app. I don't know if this would really solve the necessary internet access problem, but it would prevent the app size from increasing too much and leave this feature as something additional for anyone who really wants to use (I personally wouldn't use this feature).

[kojid0]

@kojid0 No, and I'd really like it to stay that way, but maybe this feature can be added as dictionaries are added on some keyboards, i.e. adding this feature as an extra app. I don't know if this would really solve the necessary internet access problem, but it would prevent the app size from increasing too much and leave this feature as something additional for anyone who really wants to use (I personally wouldn't use this feature).

I wouldn't use this feature either.
Yeah, a separate "Florisboard Plus" app with GIF support (maybe free on F-Droid and Paid on Google Play to support the dev?) would be a solution. Or, the other way around, "Florisboard Slim" with only basic functions/permissions.

[D3SOX]

I don't see why this would significantly increase the app size. It's basically just a view with a search box that queries the API and displays the images. I think a setting to enable/disable this is appropriate.

[RickyM7]

I wouldn't use this feature either.
Yeah, a separate "Florisboard Plus" app with GIF support (maybe free on F-Droid and Paid on Google Play to support the dev?) would be a solution. Or, the other way around, "Florisboard Slim" with only basic functions/permissions.

@kojid0 I did not mean to refer to a separate version of FlorisBoard itself, but rather just a small separate app with only the Gifs function, however this is also an option, I think.

I don't see why this would significantly increase the app size. It's basically just a view with a search box that queries the API and displays the images. I think a setting to enable/disable this is appropriate.

@D3SOX I think the biggest problem then is having internet access permission since this is not a very "privacy friendly" permission, that is if it is really necessary.

[flide]

Hi All,
I am the author of 8vim keyboard for android. I also had a similar problem of wanting to integrate emojis, lennys and gifs to my keyboard. I initially tried to cram all into the keyboard, but it did not feel right. The app size kept increasing and I figured that the user will end up missing out on features that I am not even thinking about.
So, what I did was to cut off the emoji and lenny boards into it's seperate keyboard 'pictograph' and provided an option in the settings to allow the user to configure a keyboard they want to open when they want to input emoji's and other similar stuff.

Although, I still love the idea, most other emoji keyboards don't provide an easy way back to the original keyboard, so ... that's an issue.

If you want you can try that route. A seperate internet connected keyboard does not effect your keyboard's privacy and allows the focus to remain on text input. This also allows the users the freedom to try other options available in the market.

If interested, you can check for the relavent code in my 8vim repo.

[flide]

As a side note, folks here at florisboard can try using the pictograph board as a testing ground and maybe help to introduce gif's to it. It already has emoji's (3 variations) and lennys which I plan to make configurable.

[RickyM7]

@flide First congratulations for your project, it is very interesting.
I just tested 8Vim with Pictograph and the integration between them occurs in a very fluid way, in addition the pictograph is quite complete in relation to the midias (emoji, kaomojis, etc).
Pictograph is a completely separate app from 8Vim, which makes you have the alternative of having it together with 8Vim or not, this also allows the app to have functions that can be considered non-privacy friendly without worries by being separated from the original app (just like you said).
I think it would be wonderful if FlorisBoard did something like this for the complementary features, e.g. Emojis (custom versions only, the option of emojis that FlorisBoard currently has does not consume much space), Gifs, Dictionaries, etc.

Note: @flide I think the emoji button in 8Vim should be hidden when no emoji app is selected.

[patrickgold]

First of all, thanks all for your great input to this issue. You gave me some good ideas for this rather difficult-to-implement-while-being-privacy-firendly topic.

Putting privacy things aside, it isn't too difficult to add a GIF feature to FlorisBoard via the Giphy API. As @D3SOX correctly said, it wouldn't even increase the app size that much, as only the media UI layout has to adjusted and some code has to be added to interact with Giphy and fetch the GIFs (I wouldn't use their SDK, as it is a blackbox and I don't know what it really does).

Now coming to the privacy side: Implementing GIFs require the network permission, which FlorisBoard currently doesn't have. And I want it to stay like this. And to be honest, as much as I would like to implement GIFs into FlorisBoard, I do not want to sacrifice the no-network-access philosophy for this feature.

I really like the idea of @RickyM7 though, to make the GIF functionality a separate extension app. Only this extension has the internet permission, which then fetches the GIFs and shares it with FlorisBoard.

Note, that I will soon begin working on v0.4.0 and composing suggestions though, which is a ton of work, so if I start working on GIFs, it won't be until after the v0.4.0 release. Coming with composing suggestions, I also plan to make dictionaries as extensions, which could then also serve as a base for the GIFs and make implementing such much easier.

@flide Thanks for checking in on FlorisBoard. Your concept of splitting the text and media into two separate IMEs is also a great way to tackle this issue. I will surely check out your implementation if I choose to go your way!

[bluesky509]

@patrickgold
Thank you for the consideration and thanks to everyone working on this project.
The GIF extension/addon all while retaining privacy would appeal to many, IMHO.

[singpolyma]

Giphy even supports animated webp via API, which would be ideal in terms of quality / support tradeoff

[VioletStorm]

If this feature is added I'd like to suggest also including a toggle to deactivate the content filter, this is presently only achievable on gboard with root (and it only works so-so). It would be quite wonderful to be able to disable result censorship natively with a simple toggle

[ItsRogueRen]

Gifs would 100% make me swap from Openboard. That team has refused to add gifs and I use them daily in texts with friends.