MessagEase subscription popup

This popped up today on my phone when casually tapped on a text field. As a long ass time MessagEase user this makes me sad. Even though it has its issues, it’s also been pretty much unbeatable when you need to type text on Android without looking using only one thumb. Looks like MessagEase Pro subscription fee is 1,09€/month. Not that much but no thanks. Enshittification spreads. As a FLOSS enthusiast I’ve always dreaded this sort of thing when using “free” proprietary products.

Anyhow, do I have to go back to Gboard or are there any free/oss alternatives around to replace MessagEase with?

  • debilOPEnglish
    100·
    9 months ago

    Actually I just found out about thumb-key that seems to fit the bill perfectly. In theory at least.

    • AtemuEnglish
      80·
      9 months ago

      Made by one of the people who made Lemmy btw ;)

      • debilOPEnglish
        20·
        9 months ago

        Definitely not a con! Now testing thumb-key and it seems quite promising. Just need to get a Finnish layout (or umlauts) going…

        • debilOPEnglish
          20·
          9 months ago

          Ok, I think this has some way to go still. Compared to MessagEase quite a bit of features are missing (the combine button which gives instant access to a whole lot of special characters, many settings, also do I have to press # to access numbers, etc). That said, I’ll keep this installed and hopefully contribute to its development if I can.

          • lapingvinoEnglish
            20·
            9 months ago

            happy to help! maybe we should set up a Lemmy Community if none exists already

    • ShaharHarshuvEnglish
      10·
      8 months ago

      So it’s the same thing but with a different layout? Can you set it up to use the same layout? I’m already very deeply used to it.

      • debilOPEnglish
        10·
        8 months ago

        It has the MessagEase layout supported as well.

    • HACKthePRISONS
      12·
      9 months ago

      i somehownever learned about these keyboards, and losing what speed i did have to relearn is kind of a pain.

      BUT I AM TRYING

      • Cat
        10·
        9 months ago

        Give it time. You get used to it. Eventually, you will probably type more accurately than you did before. A qwerty or any full keyboard like that does not belong on a small screen. :-)

    • debilOPEnglish
      40·
      9 months ago

      Thanks, but these seem they’re adhering to Gboard experience rather than MessagEase.

  • tuxedEnglish
    20·
    9 months ago

    AnySoftKeyboard is a great FOSS one!

  • Cat
    10·
    9 months ago

    The downloads list suddenly won’t load anymore. I was going to get the last version before they added the notice to get pro.

    • debilOPEnglish
      20·
      9 months ago

      Yeah… It could’ve been one solution because in practice the app was pretty much unmaintained anyway.

  • ShaharHarshuvEnglish
    10·
    8 months ago

    Honestly I don’t know how you can suddenly live without it. I’ve been using it for years so I’m hooked for whatever price they give… I also think they are patented so you can’t copy them legally.

    • debilOPEnglish
      10·
      8 months ago

      Well, quite easily because the amount of irritation that this move caused greatly exceeded the benefits of the product. Even if typing on mobile is now somewhat clunkier and more taxing mentally whether using thumb-key or Gboard.