Automatically Hide On-Screen Keyboard on Android When Using External Keyboard

Few days back, to make my workspace more portable, I bought an external Bluetooth keyboard for my Samsung Note 10.1. Everything about the external keyboard was awesome. But the one thing that kept bugging me was the virtual on-screen keyboardthat kept on popping even when the Bluetooth keyboard was connected.

Hiding the keyboard just took the tap of a button, but what’s annoying was that it popped up every time I touched the screen to move the cursor. It only took one or two such irritating occurrences to get me pull up my sleeves and start looking for a solution. As you’d expect, I found it, not one but two solutions to this annoyance. Here we go.

1. Null Keyboard

The easiest solution to the above problem is an Android app called Null Keyboard. The application installs as an Android keyboard on the device but does nothing. The idea here is that when you use Null keyboard no keyboard pops up on the screen, even when you are not using an external keyboard. Once you have installed the app, you will have to activate it as an additional keyboard on your device.

To activate Null Keyboard, open Android Settings and Navigate to Language & Keyboard. Here put a check against Null Keyboard to activate it. Having done that, whenever you have an external keyboard connected to your tablet and you are in editing mode, change the input method to Null Keyboard using the drawer. Don’t forget to change back to the default keyboard you were using once you are done working on the external keyboard.

Null Keyboard is the best solution when you always work using the Bluetooth keyboard as switching the keyboard can cause problems at time. While I was using the Null Keyboard, switching from Samsung to Null Keyboard was easy using the drawer notification. However, after choosing Null Keyboard, the option to quickly select the keyboard appeared no more and I had to manually disable the keyboard from settings to revert back to default on-screen keyboard.

Cool Tip: If you use Tasker application, you can use it to automatically toggle input method when an external keyboard is connected.

2. AnySoftKeyboard

The solution to aforementioned problem is AnySoftKeyboard. It is one of the many available custom on-screen keyboards that are available for Android. But what’s great about this keyboard is that it can be patched to detect external keyboard key press event to automatically hide the on-screen keyboard. AnySoftKeyboard is an amazing virtual keyboard for Android and is far better than some of the stock Android keyboards out there.

After you have installed and activated AnySoftKeyboard (ASK), you can straight away start using it. To activate the feature to detect external keyboard, open Android Settings and navigate to Language and keyboard. Here look for AnySoftKeyboard and click on the settings button next to it to configure.

In ASK Settings open Tweaks and check the option Hide keyboard on physical key. After you have activated this feature, whenever you touch the screen to input some text the on-screen keyboard will still appear but will hide automatically when it detects a key press event from an external keyboard.

Conclusion

So if you are permanently using an external keyboard, Null Keyboard is the best thing to go for. But if you have to switch between Bluetooth keyboard and on-screen keyboard, AnySoftKeyboard would be just great. I guess these two solutions should be enough to take care of your external keyboard woes in Android.

How to Change Background Colour of Keyboard to Primary Colour of the App Running in Android

Android has got many fancy keyboards that can satisfy your thirst for customization and creativity. In the past, we had shared about an invisible keyboard and a keyboard with super-fast shortcuts. So, to add to this list of keyboards I’d like to show you an interesting keyboard app that will turn its background color to the primary color of the app that is currently running.

A keyboard that adapts to the app currently running.

Change Colour of Keyboard Based on the App You’re Running

Among the many popular Android keyboards available, people tend to choose the keyboard app that looks good. Features and functions sometimes don’t matter much. After all, it’s the user interface that enhances the user experience.

Chrooma Keyboard is the app that will surely lure you to use it just because it looks good. So, let’s see what it has to offer.

Adaptive Colours

 

As you can see the background color of the keyboard gets changed based on the app you are using. And, of course, you’ll need Android Lollipop and above to make this work. The layout is simple, reminiscent of Google keyboard.

Also, one thing to note is that it doesn’t adapt to the inbuilt keyboard. Because many smartphones have Google keyboard as the system keyboard. It’s just designed that way.

Now, coming on to the features of the keyboard layout. You can’t customize the layout until you buy the premium app. Initially, the app was a paid app, however, a while back it went freemium. In the premium app’s keyboard layout you can add a number row (which shouldn’t be premium), enable split layout and a reduction mode which will reduce the size of the keyboard to let you easily use it with one hand.

Next, let’s have a look at customizing the background.

Customizing the Background

 

The styling of the keyboard is premium. By default, it’s set to flat. With premium, you get gradient effects and different palette for each keyboard row. Also, you can change keyboard font.

In the free app, you can access the Night Mode. This mode turns down the color of the keyboard to the darker color scheme of the app. You can choose at what time you want the keyboard to go into Night Mode. I prefer to keep it always in the night mode.

Other Customizations

Other customizations include setting a fixed color. If you like some color then you can fix that to be displayed system-wide. Then a battery saver option which turns down the color when your smartphone’s battery saver is turned on. And, some other usual features like gesture typing and emoji suggestions (which is set to be coming soon). Also, it has a multilingual support (which is premium).

Do you want the new Android N Emojis on your Smartphone? Here’s how you can get it.

Divided Premium Model

I liked the premium model. If you don’t want any multilingual support but just want only styles for the keyboard then you buy that specific feature at a lower price. Though a complete PRO pack will be more sensible if you really like the app and its features.