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Request: Android App that Can Use Bluetooth Game Controller as a Keyboard (Maybe Chorded) (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works to c/softwareoptions@lemmy.world

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This has been on my bucket list for a while: I'd love to have a non-keyboard form of text entry that I can use on the go without a table or stable place to put things down. I just grab a bluetooth game controller for a few bucks, get something to hold the phone on it, and write from anywhere.

If it has a complex entry system that takes time to learn and would make me feel like Neo, even better.

People do sell these weird contraptions (https://www.mytwiddler.com/ and https://shop.tapwithus.com/) that you can hold in one hand to type with, but engineering and manufacturing them at such small scales is pretty damn expensive; over $200 last I looked into it. And I definitely don´t want to learn an input method that is determined entirely by a private company that could become enshittified or go out of business.

Bluetooth game controllers come in a variety of price points and have a stable form factor, so it's definitely a good option here.

Joytokey could be used as a base, but I think it is mostly made for quick gaming shortcuts and would´t be really efficient for exclusive text entry (?). Joytochord, which turns the controller into a chording keyboard, seems to be defunct.

FOSS to the rescue?

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[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Chord - musical note or geometric construct

Cord - string, wire, rope

Curiously they share a common Latin origin.

[–] schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Congrats, you're one of today's lucky 10,000.

A keyset or chorded keyboard (also called a chorded keyset, chord keyboard or chording keyboard) is a computer input device that allows the user to enter characters or commands formed by pressing several keys together, like playing a "chord" on a piano.

Deffos don't want corded since my port is busted.