What is Reddit's opinion of
Graffiti Pro for Android?
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Popularity Score: 17
This app was mentioned in 18 comments, with an average of 1.56 upvotes
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Speaking of shorthand, does anyone use or have recommendations for a similar handwriting app on Android? I've been using Graffiti Pro which uses the concept from PalmOS of writing single symbols in the same spot, and it's much more pleasant than Google's handwriting recognition, but it's still not quite where I'd like in terms of QOL.
You are thinking of Graffiti, the handwriting method used by Palm Pro handheld PDAs. I was quite fast at writing with it, though it very quickly wore a scuff mark into the screen.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.access_company.graffiti_pro appears to be a port of it to Android, but it looks as if it's abandoned and may not even work these days.
> I miss Graffiti from Palm OS; modern tablets and phones are a step backward in that respect.
Someone made a Graffiti keyboard for Android way back. I checked and it looks like it still exists and works on some devices, though maybe not much longer since some of the recent reviews are complaining that it's broken on recent Android updates.
Though I'm not sure how necessary it is any more, considering how well my galaxy note's handwriting input mode does at deciphering my illegible half-assed scribbles. Graffiti was basically a psychological trick: it forced you to write in a certain way that made the recognition software simpler to implement, but that's less useful now that mobile devices are more powerful and the software's gotten better.
Graffiti here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.access_company.graffiti_pro&hl=en_US
It's a great app for Samsung Galaxy Notes. Also, it would be more useful when I could use this feature when taking notes or typing longer stuff online rather than messages. The main reason why forums have declined over years is because typing on on-screen keyboard is difficult and speech recognition sucks.
Ok, I found this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.access_company.graffiti_pro Not perfect, as I can't set up my own gestures, but really easy to learn if you read instructions included within this app. You can write on it without looking!
If you don't know what I was doing, I was looking if Gboard had this feature but with customizable gestures.
Lucky dog. I never should have gotten rid of mine. And the only one I've found for sale is expensive and broken.
Side note -- I had the Graffiti handwriting recognition on mine, and was pleased to find Graffiti Pro on the Google Play Store. I still have the muscle memory to use it, too.
Yes. Either webOS or PalmOS inspired.
About a year ago, a couple of us created a guide to webOS-ifying Android on PivotCE. It's very possible. They should get in touch with the guys who make the Dirty Unicorns ROM we used and just do it. https://pivotce.com/2016/09/04/guest-guide-mimic-webos-in-android/
Or they could make a Galaxy Note type device with an active stylus and PalmOS style GUI. I'd be all over that too. Access makes the graffiti interface for Android, so with a small licensing deal, it would be fairly easy to do. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.access_company.graffiti_pro&hl=en
I also share the whimsical desire to have Palm OS revived as a modern mobile platform, but there are massive odds stacked against it. Simply put, it's been over a decade since Palm's revolutionary ideas have been relevant, and the industry has moved on and evolved without it.
Graffiti, for example, had been supplanted by physical thumb keyboards (even when Palm OS was still relevant, much like in the Treo line, the Tungsten C and W, and on webOS devices), and in the present day, touch-based keyboards. There have been many attempts to revive a gesture-based text entry system (such as Graffiti for Android, Google Handwriting, and 8pen) but none have taken off so far.
IR beaming was one of the killer features of Palm OS devices, but this has been largely replaced by simply sending files over Bluetooth, and later a Wi-Fi or data connection, or simply posting them online. By modern standards, sending files over IR, especially large ones) is slow and prone to errors. Even the modern equivalent of IR beaming, Android Beam, is largely underutilized due to needing the devices to be in close proximity, and the feature is simply unknown to most Android users.
Finally, computer-based sync technologies like HotSync and ActiveSync have long been replaced with cloud-based syncing technologies like iCloud and Google Sync. It's simply too inconvenient for many users to have to connect their device to a computer in order to back up data. Desktop programs like Palm Desktop have been made obsolete by online suites like Google's PIM services or Office 365. On iOS, syncing and backing up locally to iTunes is surprisingly still possible (with a direct connection or Wi-Fi sync), but has largely been supplanted by cloud backups, which is default and therefore what most users choose to use.
As much as I'd love to see Palm's past technology come back, even just in branding, it simply wouldn't be feasible. TCL certainly had the intention to do something with the Palm trademarks a year and a half ago, but it seems like they just gave up and hoped people would forget it ever happened. More so, the wrong attempt could damage Palm's legacy. We certainly don't want our beloved Palm to end up something like the revived Commodore or Atari, which are now shadows of their former selves. Sometimes, it's best to let the past stay in the past.
I haven't tried it yet, but there is an Android app (apparently by the remnant/successor of Palm)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.access_company.graffiti_pro
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.access_company.graffiti_pro&hl=en_US
Graffiti Pro is available now for Android
There's a Graffiti app for Android that seems to work well, although I haven't tried it.
This is the closest experience I can find to old PalmOne/Handspring Visor grafitti.
Lol.. Ok yeah I love the graffiti interface and even have it as my keyboard on most of my tablets ans android phones.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.access_company.graffiti_pro
Biased to Swype, but I did stop using it when it was no longer going to be supported. Still, the depth of really intelligent features we built into it are unmatched by any keyboard out there today. Swyping punctuation is painful to me that no one else has implemented it. For example, you could Swype from the space to a double quote and add [space][quote] while the other direction allowed [quote][space]. Adding a period didn't automatically put a space at the end, but it was configured so that if you finished with a period, it could automatically add a space and capitalize the next word. The ability to circle a letter meant you could distinguish double letters. We kept track of the last 100 traces, so if you saw a typo, you could tap on the missed word and see the other words it might have been. Changing it there taught Swype how you might Swype that word in the future and improved accuracy. Slight dips in the trace between letters on the same row helped with pot, pit, put, etc. Swyping above the keyboard mid trace allowed you to control capitalization of the last character allowing you to Swype something like McDonald. The keyboard layout was the same between the different pages, alpha-numeric and symbols for instance, so if you memorized the a word to the dictionary using a mixture of letters and symbols, you could trace to the keys and it would automatically switch between letters and symbols for you. Lastly, and not the only reason Swype is still unmatched, I created the feature which let you select an address in text and then Swype from the Swype key to M and it would search for that address in Google Maps. Swype to G would let you search for a word using Google, although it would just use the default search provider I think. There were a dozen different shortcuts which allowed you to do system tasks with a single gesture. I could go on.
GBoard lacks those features I mentioned, but predicting the words you Swype was comparable. It is still actively supported and updated, so it became my default going forward. I got used to it although I didn't love it the same.
SwiftKey I am amazed at how poorly it does at learning. There are words I'm typing daily where the trace not only gives me the wrong word, but if it has alternatives, those are wrong too. If someone deletes the last word typed and they try it again, SwiftKey should realize that I probably don't want the same word I just deleted and to maybe try a different list. I end up trying a few times and it keeps getting it wrong, so I switch to tapping it out and it predicts the word I want after only one or two keys. There is something very wrong with their recognition engine that it can't learn, and can't make these predictions correctly. How about how correcting a word works? With Swype, you would double tap a word to select it, and Swype would show alternatives. With Swype, just tapping the backspace key deletes the word you just typed. GBoard, if you double tap, a similar thing and you can change casing by tapping (10 times just now before it gave me taping, taking showed up almost every time and I wanted the double letter p!) the shift button. SwiftKey wants you to tap the word, it then by default resets the cursor to the end of the word, and then you can change word or casing... But it always wants to add a space afterwords.
Where SwiftKey wins for now on the Duo, is that it knows the different layouts the device can be used and handles those transitions if not flawlessly, it's pretty darn good. They are hidden features, but Swype can use a smaller one handed width keyboard. It isn't great, but the wider aspect just doesn't work if you can't resize. Laptop mode is unusable and that is partly why I'm reluctantly using SwiftKey. It's a better experience trying to type on it than I remember it being on older devices, but it just had some dumb decisions that I find frustrating.
Ideally I want a supported, updated, and modern version of Swype that handles keyboard resizing and understands dual screen the way SwiftKey does.
GBoard I'll keep around for the handwriting when I want it... but it looks like Swype added that at some point. Interesting. I'll have to see how that compares.
Now when I'm talking about one handed keyboard support, I really just mean that the keyboard doesn't span the entire width of the screen. Even in phone mode, most of the time I'm using one hand to hold the device and typing with the other. It's mostly just because I don't want the other display on screen at that time. Most of the time I'm in book mode and I still want the keyboard offset to the side of the screen I'm currently typing on. That frees up vertical space for the screen and makes my traces so that they are much smaller and don't require long stretches. SwiftKey has great support for this. Gboard isn't bad, but it has other problems I've already mentioned. Again, because I'm using the Duo first, how it supports the device is most critical for me right now. Gboard which works for rotating the device and could automatically switch sides depending on the display it is on would probably have me switch.
I seldom use voice dictation, so I don't have an opinion there.
I saw your debunk too. LTT was just wrong. Riley had no business voicing his opinion when he obviously couldn't tell which way was up. It should be an embarrassment, but I think they probably made money on that... so... being controversial drives viewership. Being over the top obnoxious for a niche device brings in more eyeballs than they offend. My opinion of them is now lower, but I bet they don't even notice.
So best keyboard, Swype but aged, best supported keyboard, GBoard, and best for Duo, SwiftKey. Accuracy for me is 99%, 95%, and 90%, respectfully. What SwiftKey gets wrong it really gets wrong, but it is still better than tapping on the alternatives.
Graffiti still exists, but it requires you to think about words letter by letter whereas Swype allows you to increase that information bandwidth quickly and gives you word by word context if you're already familiar with keyboards and typing. One idea I pitched internally which was never adopted was a custom keyboard layout for Swype which might increase accuracy and decrease collisions. The thought of trying to support Dvorak was already complicated. Something like 8vim is interesting, you'll need to look it up because it is early access, but it suffers the same problem as Graffiti. The best of that sort of category keyboard must be Quickwriting for PalmOS. The NYU page still exists for this and was hugely inspirational for me with my Palm Vx. There was one more keyboard I remember from my past which was really interesting because it was like a visual representation of words using tries, and you'd navigate to the next letters in the word visually. Really not usable for most everyone, but this is a space which I've been active for years. Unlike Riley, I'm speaking from experience and a deep understanding of all which has been tried before. Swype was lightyears ahead and still hasn't been matched.