How to work the shortcuts?

[Slion 1,200]

I understand you can launch/switch apps using keyboard shortcuts.

I found the physical keyboard settings entry where they show the shortcuts but I still have to understand how to use them. I think my keyboard is missing that magnifying glass key 😁

Then again it took me like an hour to notice that Sym key that does not seem to be doing anything. 🤔 I'll blame my old age for being so thick 😁

 

[EskeRahn 5,427]

Hold the assigned letter/key long, from the home screen 🙂

[Slion 1,200]

9 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

Hold the assigned letter/key long, from the home screen 🙂

I see. That's just a home screen feature then. That's a bit odd seeing how it looks like Android has those built-in shortcuts shown in the settings but no magnifying glass on that keyboard to use them.

[EskeRahn 5,427]

21 minutes ago, Slion said:

I see. That's just a home screen feature then. That's a bit odd seeing how it looks like Android has those built-in shortcuts shown in the settings but no magnifying glass on that keyboard to use them.

Ah, sorry THOSE shortcuts - did not even know they existed. Yeah a bit odd they are displayed. I think we better ask F(x)tec if they can hide the "Keyboard shortcuts helper", only causing confusion. Thanks.

@Erik or @Waxberry would you grab that ball and pass it on please?

[Slion 1,200]

32 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

Ah, sorry THOSE shortcuts - did not even know they existed. Yeah a bit odd they are displayed.

To be honest I rather have proper customisable global shortcuts working one way or another. Those looks like they are hardcoded which sounds silly. However having default working ones out of the box is probably the way to go.

[EskeRahn 5,427]

1 hour ago, Slion said:

To be honest I rather have proper customisable global shortcuts working one way or another. Those looks like they are hardcoded which sounds silly. However having default working ones out of the box is probably the way to go.

Well, but as they are combinations with a non-existing key, not much point as is, so they would need to be modified to something the keyboard can do.

And I fear that globally fixed shortcuts could easily conflict with something some app expects to be free. Especially terminal emulators or the like. So at the least they should be something that could be turned off.

[wilhelmfitzpatrick 47]

I've not been able to figure out how to type the accelerator shortcuts to launch apps via the physical keyboard. The settings panel for the physical keyboard shows the "Search" key (magnifying glass). I tried using the "FxTec" key, but that just takes me back to the launcher. Any hints?

[wilhelmfitzpatrick 47]

Ah, I too had assumed that FxTec was leveraging the Android built-in global shortcut mechanism. Well, that's a bummer, but at least I can stop searching for now.

[Craig 1,435]

They apparently didn't implement it (yet)?; they'd have to assign Fxtec key as 'meta' for those to work - if I understand right. 

There are some keyboard shortcuts you can assign in the stock launcher, that activate on long press of keys.