Keyboard Shortcuts Helper

Keyboard Shortcuts Helper enables users to discover keyboard shortcuts for the platform and open apps. Publish your app's shortcuts in Keyboard Shortcuts Helper to improve user productivity and ease of use.

Users press Meta+/ to open the keyboard shortcuts screen, which is available on Android 7.0 (API level 24) and higher.

Application open on a device showing system shortcuts.
Figure 1. Keyboard Shortcuts Helper.

Provide shortcuts to Keyboard Shortcuts Helper

You can provide available keyboard shortcut lists to Keyboard Shortcuts Helper by overriding the onProvideKeyboardShortcuts() window callback. The following snippet demonstrates an implementation of onProvideKeyboardShortcuts() to add a group of four shortcuts:

class MainActivity : ComponentActivity() {
    // Activity codes such as overridden onStart method.

    override fun onProvideKeyboardShortcuts(
        data: MutableList<KeyboardShortcutGroup>?,
        menu: Menu?,
        deviceId: Int
    ) {
        val shortcutGroup = KeyboardShortcutGroup(
            "Cursor movement",
            listOf(
                KeyboardShortcutInfo("Up", KeyEvent.KEYCODE_P, KeyEvent.META_CTRL_ON),
                KeyboardShortcutInfo("Down", KeyEvent.KEYCODE_N, KeyEvent.META_CTRL_ON),
                KeyboardShortcutInfo("Forward", KeyEvent.KEYCODE_F, KeyEvent.META_CTRL_ON),
                KeyboardShortcutInfo("Backward", KeyEvent.KEYCODE_B, KeyEvent.META_CTRL_ON),
            )
        )
        data?.add(shortcutGroup)
    }
}

KeyboardShortcutInfo describes a keyboard shortcut. The list of keyboard shortcuts are wrapped as a KeyboardShortcutGroup object. Apps notify available keyboard shortcuts to Keyboard Shortcuts Helper by adding the KeyboardShortcutGroup objects to the mutable list passed as the first parameter of the method.

Organize keyboard shortcuts with groups

Keyboard Shortcuts Helper displays keyboard shortcuts in separate groups so users can find shortcuts by use case or for screens of your app. Figure 2 shows the keyboard shortcuts categorized into two groups: cursor movement and message editing.

Application open on a device showing shortcut groups.
Figure 2. Categories in Keyboard Shortcuts Helper.

Your app registers two or more groups of keyboard shortcuts by creating a KeyboardShortcutGroup object for each group. In the following snippet, two KeyboardShortCutGroup objects are added to the mutable list passed to the onProvideKeyboardShortcuts() method. The objects are displayed as categories in Keyboard Shortcuts Helper as figure 2 shows.

override fun onProvideKeyboardShortcuts(
    data: MutableList<KeyboardShortcutGroup>?,
    menu: Menu?,
    deviceId: Int
) {
    val cursorMovement = KeyboardShortcutGroup(
        "Cursor movement",
        listOf(
            KeyboardShortcutInfo("Up", KeyEvent.KEYCODE_P, KeyEvent.META_CTRL_ON),
            KeyboardShortcutInfo("Down", KeyEvent.KEYCODE_N, KeyEvent.META_CTRL_ON),
            KeyboardShortcutInfo("Forward", KeyEvent.KEYCODE_F, KeyEvent.META_CTRL_ON),
            KeyboardShortcutInfo("Backward", KeyEvent.KEYCODE_B, KeyEvent.META_CTRL_ON),
        )
    )

    val messageEdit = KeyboardShortcutGroup(
        "Message editing",
        listOf(
            KeyboardShortcutInfo("Select All", KeyEvent.KEYCODE_A, KeyEvent.META_CTRL_ON),
            KeyboardShortcutInfo("Send a message", KeyEvent.KEYCODE_ENTER, KeyEvent.META_SHIFT_ON)
        )
    )

    data?.add(cursorMovement)
    data?.add(messageEdit)
}

Open Keyboard Shortcuts Helper from code

Apps display the keyboard shortcuts screen by calling the requestShowKeyboardShortcuts() method. In the following snippet, Keyboard Shortcuts Helper opens when users tap or click the button or press the Enter key.

val activity = LocalContext.current as Activity

Button(onClick = { activity.requestShowKeyboardShortcuts() }) {
    Text(text = "Show keyboard shortcuts")
}
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