An Android keyboard that actually listens

What it does

BiBi Keyboard is an Android input method that replaces tap-typing with voice-first input. It captures speech through multiple ASR engines—seven cloud providers plus four local models via sherpa-onnx—then optionally runs the raw transcript through an LLM for post-processing before inserting it into whatever text field you’re focused on. A floating-ball mode lets you use this pipeline from inside other keyboards without switching IMEs entirely.

The interesting bit

The floating ball is the clever part: it grants voice superpowers to keyboards that don’t have them, using accessibility services to auto-insert text. The project also exposes a SpeechRecognizer interface so third-party apps can call BiBi’s ASR stack directly—it’s positioning itself as infrastructure, not just a consumer app. The Pro version ($4.49 on Play Store) gates unspecified “advanced features,” while the open-source core handles the full ASR→LLM→insertion flow.

Key highlights

• 11 ASR backends: cloud (Doubao, ElevenLabs, Whisper, etc.) and local (sherpa-onnx for offline use)
• LLM post-processing to fix ASR errors, add punctuation, or reformat dictated text
• Floating-ball overlay works across any input method, with compatibility modes for Telegram and TikTok
• Material 3 UI with Monet theming; supports Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, and Japanese
• Kotlin 2.2.20, targets Android 10+ (API 29), compiles against SDK 36

Caveats

• The README pushes火山引擎 (Volcano Engine) for the “20 hours free” tier—vendor lock-in risk for new users
• Accessibility permissions for floating-ball auto-insertion are a known Android friction point
• Pro feature gating is vague; unclear what exactly the open-source build is missing

Verdict

Worth a look if you’re an Android user who dictates heavily in Chinese or English and wants LLM-polished output without typing. Skip if you need a fully free, zero-configuration experience—this is a power user’s tool with API keys to manage.