Themes / Apps / Mods SamSprung TooIME - Cover Screen Keyboard (Universal)

[twistedumbrella]

The one and only true Z Flip cover screen IME

If blocking keyboards doesn't prevent using one,
does blocking them really make sense?​

After releasing the code to enable keyboards as part of SamSprung TooUI, this is a standalone cover screen IME. This project has been developed in the hope of one day being natively supported.

GitHub - SamSprung/SamSprung-TooIME: The one and only Z Flip cover screen keyboard

The one and only Z Flip cover screen keyboard. Contribute to SamSprung/SamSprung-TooIME development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

SamSprung TooIME (Keyboard) - Apps on Google Play

The one and only Z Flip cover screen keyboard

play.google.com

Setup is relatively easy.

Enable the permissions
-> appear over apps to allow it to display
-> accessibility to toggle it on the fly
Enable keyboard (do NOT set as default)


A free version has been released here through GitHub. The GitHub version has been posted exclusively on xda as a thank you to everyone who has been a part of SamSprung since it began. It is basic, but functional. The Google Play version will be updated with additional features and improvements.

Traditional keyboard functionality has been specifically blocked on the cover screen by a root level configuration.
This app bypasses current limitations by creating the keyboard around the field instead of fields requesting a cached keyboard instance.

See the GitHub README for setup and usage information​

Home

The one and only Z Flip cover screen keyboard. Contribute to SamSprung/SamSprung-TooIME development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

If a picture is worth 1000 words, it would take hundreds to match the code being written.


​

 

[rogerandgina06]

It somehow not working for me.

 

[twistedumbrella]

Sorry for the delay. In pulling the keyboard out of the main app, it's still trying to end the service when the device goes idle. Since there is no longer a master service to restart it, it only runs once.

Fix should be up in a couple minutes.

 

[twistedumbrella]

Should stay alive now.

Being completely honest, the keyboard works about 100 times better separate from the launcher. The two biggest issues, one of which was restoring the default when not in use, are much easier to manage when all the other parts don't get in the way.

Now that it's a separate project, we can also start doing adjustable size and themes and all the other proper keyboard stuff that couldn't really fit before.

 

[twistedumbrella]

Added sound and vibration options. The sound may not sync perfectly. Still working out a better way to do that.

I've also decided to make the Google Play release a paid app to start recovering a little of the cost. The version here will still be free. The only real difference will be that the version on Google Play will continue to receive cosmetic updates and new features.

 

[crawls69]

Added sound and vibration options. The sound may not sync perfectly. Still working out a better way to do that.

I've also decided to make the Google Play release a paid app. It will only cost $1, but I need to start recovering a little of the cost. The version here will still be free. The only real difference will be that the version on Google Play is verified by Google, if that means anything.

Nice. I'm actually glad you did a paid version of the keyboard given all the work you've done on the whole Samsprung development project. I didn't buy the Play Store version of the keyboard but I made another contribution today towards the Samsprung development project. I think everyone using the Samprung launcher and/or keyboard should at a minimum buy the Play Store version of the keyboard just to contribute in some way towards this project. It's a very small price to pay for something that has made our cover screen much better than what Samsung has done with it. Keep up the good work, twistedumbrella!!

 

[twistedumbrella]

Thanks @crawls69! You've always been a great supporter and it really means a lot.

 

[rogerandgina06]

@twistedumbrella Is this a keyboard for the cover screen? If so, I can't get it to work....

 

[twistedumbrella]

@twistedumbrella Is this a keyboard for the cover screen? If so, I can't get it to work....

The logcat button can collect a log of any crashes. If it isn't a crash, it may have to do with the type of entry box you're trying to use it on. What have you tried?

 

[rogerandgina06]

Responding to text messages from the native message app.

 

[twistedumbrella]

Alright. I'll run some tests and see if I can reproduce the issue.

Is it just not appearing at all? As in not even a flicker.

 

[twistedumbrella]

I rearranged some things to avoid the keyboard getting cancelled out by other views. Hopefully that will resolve the issue.

 

[rogerandgina06]

Alright. I'll run some tests and see if I can reproduce the issue.

Is it just not appearing at all? As in not even a flicker.

Not showing up at all.

 

[twistedumbrella]

Is that still the case? I was able to get it to stop appearing in a couple tests and patched those issues. I haven't been able to get it to not appear since, but that doesn't rule out the possibility of a situation I missed.

 

[twistedumbrella]

Admittedly, it is much MUCH easier to simply include the keyboard in the app using it, especially with accessibility.

Rather than catching the call to enable the keyboard, an InputConnection can be generated from the field itself. Some may not care about passing all of your views through the app, but I treat everyone else's data like I would my own. Grabbing the field and modifying it within the app seems like a huge risk for privacy concerns.

The alternative would be to create an invisible entry box and write to it. This would generate the required InputConnection and avoid directly traversing the screen, but has a large performance cost.

The final version is to temporarily take the default keyboard role. This gives the keyboard the default InputConnection and allows typing directly into an entry box, much the same way a conventional IME would do it. There is one part that hasn't been implemented yet to make this ideal, but where's the fun in copying code and not doing any work?

 

[rogerandgina06]

Is that still the case? I was able to get it to stop appearing in a couple tests and patched those issues. I haven't been able to get it to not appear since, but that doesn't rule out the the possibility of a situation I missed.

Still not showing up on the cover screen. The picture shows it showing up in my notification panel.

 

[twistedumbrella]

@Landrea made a good point. This needs a preview.

Not the prettiest in the world, but now it has one.

 

[Landrea]

@Landrea made a good point. This needs a preview.

Not the prettiest in the world, but now it has one.

My point was I couldn't see what I was writing. Now the keyboard has the preview. Not the best one, but still, good job @twistedumbrella . Keep working on this project, it really has value!

 

[twistedumbrella]

It's super ugly right now, but I'm working on getting it somewhat bearable.

 

[crawls69]

It's super ugly right now, but I'm working on getting it somewhat bearable.

twistedumbrella,

It may be super ugly to you but it's drop dead gorgeous to me. LOL

I was willing to accept the fact that I would never have the same experience on the Z Flip 3 cover screen that I did on my RAZR 5G cover display. But you keep getting us closer to it. I no longer miss the functionality of the RAZR 5G cover display (except for the fact that it's larger). That said, is there any way you can do an update that causes the cover screen to physically expand to perhaps 2.7 inches or so? LOL. You already accomplished what was apparently impossible for Samsung to do. Who knows??

As much as I use the cover screen, I was actually gonna get rid of the Z Flip 3 and go back to the RAZR 5G after Android 12 cause the widget version of Samsprung to stop working. I'm glad I didn't. I would be kicking myself right now.

I'm usually not one to throw shade but given what all has been accomplished with the Samsprung launcher and keyboard, Samsung should be really ashamed of themselves. I'm sure they have an army of resources at their disposal that could have easily gotten this done (they have a market capitalization in excess of $400 billion). They should offer you a licensing deal!!