fxtec11 9 Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 (edited) Back in 2013 I had a Blackberry Q5. It has a physical keyboard, that shows text predictions while typing on the lower end of the screen, but no software keyboard. This demo from back then shows how it worked: https://youtu.be/gNoC4rBWdes?t=43 I tried several keyboards on the Pro1 trying to achieve a similar result, with the exception that i want to see the software keyboard in portrait mode. Android Keyboard(AOSP): Shows in portrait word with word suggestions, but does not show at all in landscape mode. "Show virtual keyboard" option in Android Physical Keyboard Settings fully enables or disables it in landscape mode. Same behaviour: OpenBoard, GBoard, Hacker's Keyboard, AnySoftKeyboard, Yandex.Keyboard Typewise: Similar to AOSP, but goes into fullscreen mode and still shows its own keyboard. Blackberry Keyboard(installed using Blackberry Manager by cobalt232): same as AOSP, but ignores "Show virtual keyboard" option and always shows. Microsoft SwiftKey: the only one i found that shows text prediction in portrait mode without showing software keyboard, but a a weird positioned overlay that blocks other interaction elements of the underlying app (e.g. "Send" button in WhatsApp). This makes it very close to unusable, because the overlay cannot be moved or positioned in its own place. It always gets in the way of the app. Edit: SwiftKey can be configured to the desired behaviour by changing the software keyboard mode from "float" to "full". The option button might not be visible on screen when in float-mode. I tested all possible settings of the mentioned keyboards without any success. If anyone knows a keyboard that has an option to enable this, please let me know! Edited October 24, 2020 by fxtec11 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
FlyingAntero 812 Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 1 hour ago, fxtec11 said: Microsoft SwiftKey: the only one i found that shows text prediction in portrait mode without showing software keyboard, but a a weird positioned overlay that blocks other interaction elements of the underlying app (e.g. "Send" button in WhatsApp). This makes it very close to unusable, because the overlay cannot be moved or positioned in its own place. It always gets in the way of the app. That is weird since for me the overlay does not block anything on WhatsApp 🤔. Just tried it, see below. I just don't understand why you want to use real keyboard on portrait mode? 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
EskeRahn 5,350 Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 Word-prediction under Swiftkey works well for me, both using the real keyboard in landscape and the fake keyboard in portrait. (But got no idea why the suggestions are different....) 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jamescarruthers 37 Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 Is there any way to use Swift Key without theose awful cons taking up so much screen space, especially in landscape. I was always told how wonderfully customisable Android was but it seems to be more a choice of one hundred shit solutions, none of them great or particularly working well with each other. The Pro1 runs some apps I need and like to have, but it pales in comparison to my Blackberry Passport. Maybe when the LOS typing issue is resolved I can actually enjoy using it but for now typing is pretty awful sometimes. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
FlyingAntero 812 Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, jamescarruthers said: Is there any way to use Swift Key without theose awful cons taking up so much screen space, especially in landscape. I was always told how wonderfully customisable Android was but it seems to be more a choice of one hundred shit solutions, none of them great or particularly working well with each other. The Pro1 runs some apps I need and like to have, but it pales in comparison to my Blackberry Passport. Maybe when the LOS typing issue is resolved I can actually enjoy using it but for now typing is pretty awful sometimes. You can hide the extra row and adjust the size of the SwiftKey. Then you can make an automation to use another virtual keyboard for portrait. So SwiftKey for landscape and Gboard for portrait (example). Edited October 23, 2020 by FlyingAntero Quote Link to post Share on other sites
EskeRahn 5,350 Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 29 minutes ago, FlyingAntero said: You can hide the extra row and adjust the size of the SwiftKey. Please share how I can get rid of this screen-waste. How do I hide the Toolbar on Microsoft SwiftKey? We recently made a change to the Toolbar on your Microsoft SwiftKey Keyboard. Just tap the icon to the left of the prediction bar to close or hide the Toolbar. Tap theicon when you want to expand or open your Toolbar. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
fxtec11 9 Posted October 24, 2020 Author Share Posted October 24, 2020 Thanks to all for the replies. For me, SwiftKey always showed in Floating Mode while in Landscape Mode and most of the controls were off screen. By enabling "Show virtual Keyboard" I was able to pull the controls up so i could see and use them. I finally found the option to put it into "Full"-Mode as shown by EskeRahn. I think it's still kind of sad, that SwiftKey seems to be the only one offering this feature, so i guess i am going to submit feature requests for this at the open source keyboard projects, so that weg get a privacy-friendly alternative. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
sequestris 709 Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 SwiftKey 7.4.6.6 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jamescarruthers 37 Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 Tried this SwiftKey thing. In landscape I couldn't make the stupid icons go away and it covered the whole screen with a grey box sometimes when composing email in K-9. I wish there was an alternative but I really am starting to hate this phone and its shit mismatch of software Quote Link to post Share on other sites
OKSun 103 Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 23 minutes ago, jamescarruthers said: Tried this SwiftKey thing. In landscape I couldn't make the stupid icons go away and it covered the whole screen with a grey box sometimes when composing email in K-9. I wish there was an alternative but I really am starting to hate this phone and its shit mismatch of software Would you have a picture to help understand the problem? I am using swiftkey without issue (but with bluemail). 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
EskeRahn 5,350 Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 8 hours ago, jamescarruthers said: Tried this SwiftKey thing. In landscape I couldn't make the stupid icons go away and it covered the whole screen with a grey box sometimes when composing email in K-9. I do not see this. (Also using K9) Perhaps clear the cache of swiftkey, or even uninstall and reinstall swiftkey if it really has messed it self up. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jacob_S 128 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 I ran into some weird behaviour with SwiftKey on LineageOS, that took me a bit to figure out. Landscape mode: at the beginning of a text field and after symbols like "-" pressing Shift and then writing would lead to two capital letters Portrait mode: "-" Shift and then writing would lead to a space after the symbol and only one capital letter All options for insertion of symbols etc. in SwiftKey were off. But after looking around in the system settings for a bit I saw that there the option for spellcheck (by AOSP) was still active (Why ever?). Turning it off solves the unwanted behaviour and SwiftKey word suggestions do still work anyway. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jacob_S 128 Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 I have another problem with SwiftKey (different from the one I described above) and wanted to ask, if it also affects others. I'm on LineageOS 17.1, but it would also be good to hear from people on other OS, if they have something like that as well. When I press Shift and the first letter at about the same time and then continue writing, not only the first, but also the second letter comes out capitalised sometimes. I can wait seconds before pressing the next letter, so it's not because I had Shift still pressed while typing too fast. Disabling SwiftKey and reenabling the AOSP keyboard solves the issue. So I'm sure it's connected to SwiftKey. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
EskeRahn 5,350 Posted January 27, 2021 Share Posted January 27, 2021 11 hours ago, Jacob_S said: I have another problem with SwiftKey (different from the one I described above) and wanted to ask, if it also affects others. I'm on LineageOS 17.1, but it would also be good to hear from people on other OS, if they have something like that as well. When I press Shift and the first letter at about the same time and then continue writing, not only the first, but also the second letter comes out capitalised sometimes. I can wait seconds before pressing the next letter, so it's not because I had Shift still pressed while typing too fast. Disabling SwiftKey and reenabling the AOSP keyboard solves the issue. So I'm sure it's connected to SwiftKey. I have seen that too, but it is quite seldom for me though, so thought it was me that fumbled... 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jacob_S 128 Posted January 27, 2021 Share Posted January 27, 2021 4 minutes ago, EskeRahn said: I have seen that too, but it is quite seldom for me though, so thought it was me that fumbled... When I'm normally writing it happens maybe every 5th or 6th time (which is still a lot with all the German nouns), but when I'm actively trying to do it, I can get it about every 2nd try. But good to see, that I'm not the only one. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
reiner.popp 4 Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 On 1/27/2021 at 12:28 AM, Jacob_S said: I have another problem with SwiftKey (different from the one I described above) and wanted to ask, if it also affects others. I'm on LineageOS 17.1, but it would also be good to hear from people on other OS, if they have something like that as well. When I press Shift and the first letter at about the same time and then continue writing, not only the first, but also the second letter comes out capitalised sometimes. I can wait seconds before pressing the next letter, so it's not because I had Shift still pressed while typing too fast. Disabling SwiftKey and reenabling the AOSP keyboard solves the issue. So I'm sure it's connected to SwiftKey. I have the same problem. Also with LineageOS17.1 and SwiftKey. So I press at first the SWIFT for a short time and after them the first letter and the other letters. In this way the firs letter is capital and the second small...... But the yellow arrow I have to hold an press at the same time one off the yellow sign. And I have also the problem in landscape I can't use the smilies, I have to change to the portrait display without the physical keyboard..... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jacob_S 128 Posted February 1, 2021 Share Posted February 1, 2021 2 hours ago, reiner.popp said: I have the same problem. Also with LineageOS17.1 and SwiftKey. So I press at first the SWIFT for a short time and after them the first letter and the other letters. In this way the firs letter is capital and the second small...... But the yellow arrow I have to hold an press at the same time one off the yellow sign. And I have also the problem in landscape I can't use the smilies, I have to change to the portrait display without the physical keyboard..... The yellow arrow not being sticky (means that you can release it before pressing the next button) is caused by Lineage not having that function included (yet?). But at least better than the stock Android, where not even Shift is sticky. About the emojis: I have the same problem, but I'm actually not sure, if it is caused by SwiftKey or the Messenger apps. I think to recall it was the same on my BlackBerry Priv, where I was using the BB-Keyboard. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.