Manage detachable keyboard configuration changes

The Android system triggers a configuration change every time a keyboard is attached to or detached from a device. To ensure a seamless user experience and maximize user productivity on large screen devices with detachable keyboards, your app needs to effectively manage keyboard configuration changes.

Prevent activity recreation on keyboard change

To prevent your activity from being recreated when a detachable keyboard is attached or detached, add keyboard-related values to the configChanges attribute of your app manifest and add a view to the activity's view hierarchy so your app can listen for configuration changes.

1. Declare the configChanges attribute

Update the <activity> element in the app manifest by adding the keyboard|keyboardHidden values to the list of already managed configuration changes:

<activity
    ...
    android:configChanges="...|keyboard|keyboardHidden">

2. Add an empty view to the view hierarchy

Declare a new view and add your handler code inside the view's onConfigurationChanged() method:

Kotlin

val v = object : View(this) {
    override fun onConfigurationChanged(newConfig: Configuration?) {
        super.onConfigurationChanged(newConfig)
        // Handler code here.
    }
}

Java

View v = new View(this) {
    @Override
    protected void onConfigurationChanged(Configuration newConfig) {
        super.onConfigurationChanged(newConfig);
        // Handler code here.
    }
};

Key points

Results

Your app now responds to an external keyboard being attached or detached without recreating the running activity.

Collections that contain this guide

This guide is part of these curated Quick Guide collections that cover broader Android development goals:

Enable your app to support an optimized user experience on tablets, foldables, and ChromeOS devices.
Quick guide collection

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