You Should Know @lemmy.world boredsquirrel @slrpnk.net 5mo ago

YSK: Android has a "Ctrl+Z" feature, the keyboards just dont support it

Hacker's Keyboard (the first one), Florisboard Beta, FUTO Keyboard and more have a button to reverse and repeat the actions.

This can reverse stuff like deleting a text and more.

This feature exists, but just isnt used!

Supported Keyboards

Hacker's Keyboard
Thumbkey
FUTO Keyboard
Florisboard (beta)
Heliboard (modern Fork of OpenBoard)
Unexpected Keyboard
AnySoft Keyboard

68 comments

Hacker's Keyboard can. Because it's just a condensed full keyboard, ctrl, alt, arrow keys, function keys, and most of the rest included.
- I rarely use that keyboard, but once in a while you just need to type something in a terminal or a remote desktop or something, and it really comes in handy then.
  
  Take a look at Unexpected Keyboard too, it's great and actively developed. F-Droid / GitHub / Play Store
  
  Same
- Yes, I formerly used that. But as it is unusable, I left it out
  
  Such an unhelpful comment.
Undo has been available in the Alt Menu of GBoard for a while. Long press on an editable text field then select Undo in the popup alternative menu (sometimes you need to scroll over or tap the 3 dots to see the full menu choices)
- Let's see if that's true.
  
  Nope. Couldn't find it.
  
  Not saying you're lying, but it's not available on my version of gboard.
  
  Maybe you need to enable Glide Typing in GBoard options or another setting I have turned on.
  
  There's an undo in mine...
- The options that you see there are not dependent on your keyboard though. Change your keyboard to something else, and you still see the same options when long pressing a text field.
iOS has a non-obvious undo / redo, too. To access the undo menu, shake the phone.
- It’s also had the three finger tap gestures for 5 years. There are gestures to quickly copy, paste, undo, redo, etc.
  
  They’re also something you need to learn and can’t really intuit. But, like shake, they are system wide.
  
  https://9to5mac.com/2019/06/12/gestures-undo-ios-iphone-ipad/
  
  I miss the pressure sensitive my iPhone 5 had. A hard press immediately pulled up the copy / paste menu. I think th
  
  I miss the pressure sensitive touch screen my iPhone 7 had. A hard press immediately pulled up the copy / paste menu.
- That sound you heard was my mom trying to test this leading to her iPhone getting yeeted through a window
- This can't be true.
  
  Edit: Just tried on my work phone. Wtf.
Found FUTO to be my favorite of the and trying it out now as a daily driver, thanks for the suggestion :)
- What do you think so far, any observations?
  
  It's the best replacement for Google keyboard I've tried by a wide mile. I like the gestures it has by comparison, they allow finer control. It's also very stylish. I'll probably use it for a long while.
Unexpected Keyboard has A Ctrl key that does pretty much everything you expect
Wanna know something weirder?

The official Google keyboard has undo too—just only on the Japanese locale (perhaps on similar languages too)

No idea why it's not at least an option to put on the suggestion bar for every other language
- Hahaha thats absurd
With an OTG connector you can just plug a keyboard into your phone. You can do stuff like alt-tab to switch between open apps. And if you plug in a mouse, a giant cursor appears. It's kinda cursed but it works.
A thing I did with Key Mapper from F-Droid lets me undo by pressing Volume Down + Volume Up, and Redo by pressing Volume Up + Volume Down (the order matters). If anyone's interested I can share how to set it up.

Note that it'd work better and more seamlessly if you use Shizuku, but I don't so there's some caveats. I'll happily go into more detail if anyone wants, just ask.
- The development stopped for KeyMapper, sadly
  
  Still works.
  
  Development stopped on Hacker's Keyboard in 2018(?) and people keep using it.
Uuhh, I know we are talking about phones. But the stock keyboard supports all desktop shortcuts when Android runs on a tablet. Like, I'm using them right now on a Samsung A8.
- What? Screenshot or I dont believe you
  
  Well, I'm downtown right now and I no longer have my tablet with me. But here's from the horse's mouth. It says Galaxy Tab S, but it applies to all Galaxy tablets. There you can see the ctrl key on the tablet's default keyboard. That key has full functionality for the common shortcuts. That's undo, redo, copy, cut, paste, and select all. I use them all the time ever since I got it. Both tablets and phones can undo and redo if you connect a bluetooth keyboard to them too.
  
  The Samsung keyboard for phones also acquires the powers of undo and redo if you activate the swipe gestures.
  
  I don't know why it is so simple on the tablet but not on the phones, but whatever. It's a UX quirk, it's not some magic that the keyboards are creating. Android has an UndoManager right in the OS since before 2018. It is what apps that have undo buttons use themselves.
  
  I can't SS it because it's covered in like 2 inches of dust and dead as fuck but my old pixel tablet was the same way
Probably to facilitate it on the Android Studio test environment, that or it's legacy from the linux kernel
- I dont think the text input is in the kernel?
  
  I mean because android is a linux based OS it could have inherited ctrl-Z from Linux's list of ctrl options.
- pretty sure i remember just pressing ctrl-c/ctrl-v on the android studio emulator
Also works with AnySoftKeyboard.
I’m always kind of surprised that, Google has yet to follow iOS in having universal, system wide, undo / redo shortcuts.

Back in iOS 1 and 2, we used to mock Apple for lacking universal undo. Then they added that shake to undo feature in iOS 3. That gesture is stupid as hell, and the newer three finger gestures are also kind of janky, but at least they work everywhere.
I've also used hacker keyboard to ctrl+c/ctrl+v when apps block the regular context copy/paste actions, pretty handy.
They also show up on the context menu in supported apps regardless of the keyboard, no?
- No.
- No idea I avoid those like hell, the press is too slow and it is always changing.
  
  Really, the inventors of "intelligent context menus" can go to hell
Sounds like a bad UI/UX. Rely only on the keyboard provider.

Add "HeliBoard" to the list.
- Where is it?
  
  Edit: found it, on suggestion bar
There was a keyboard ages back that had a really nifty swipe shortcut for that. I really miss that keyboard!
Thumbkey has it, too.

68 comments