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Possible-key-values.md

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Key values

This is an exhaustive list of special values accepted for the key0 through key8 or nw through se attributes on a key.

Any string that does not exactly match these will be printed verbatim. A key can output multiple characters, but cannot combine multiple built-in key values.

Escape codes

Value Escape code for
\? ?
\# #
\@ @
\n Literal newline character. This is different from enter and action in certain apps.
\t Literal tab character. This is different from tab in certain apps.
\\ \

XML escape codes also work, including:

Value Escape code for
& &
&lt; <
&gt; >
&quot; "

Modifiers

System modifiers are sent to the app, which is free to do whatever they want in response. The other modifiers only exist within the keyboard.

Value Meaning
shift System modifier.
ctrl System modifier.
alt System modifier.
meta System modifier. Equivalent to the Windows key.
fn Activates Fn mode, which assigns letters and symbols to special characters. e.g. fn ! = ¡
compose Compose key. Enables composing characters using Linux-like shortcuts; e.g. Compose A single quote types Á (A with acute accent).
capslock Actives and locks Shift

Special keys

These keys are sent to apps, which are free to ignore them. The keyboard does not perform editing in response to these keys.

esc, enter, up, right, down, left, page_up, page_down, home, end, backspace, delete, insert, scroll_lock, f1-f12, tab, copy, paste, cut, selectAll, pasteAsPlainText, undo, redo

Whitespace

Value Meaning
space Space bar.
nbsp Non-breaking space.
nnbsp Narrow non-breaking space.
zwj Zero-width joiner.
zwnj Zero-width non-joiner.

Keyboard editing actions

These keys perform editing on the text without sending keys that the app can interpret differently or ignore.

Value Meaning
cursor_left Moves the cursor position to the left directly, without sending a left key event.
cursor_right Moves the cursor position to the right directly, without sending a right key event.

Other modifiers and diacritics

Value Meaning
accent_aigu Acute accent. á
accent_caron Háček. č
accent_cedille Cedilla. ç
accent_circonflexe Circumflex. â
accent_grave Grave accent. à
accent_macron Macron. ā
accent_ring Ring accent. å
accent_tilde Tilde. ã
accent_trema Dieresis/umlaut. ä
accent_ogonek Ogonek. ą
accent_dot_above Dot accent. ż If applied to the lowercase i, removes the dot instead for Turkish. ı
accent_double_aigu Double acute accent. ő
accent_slash Slash through. ø
accent_arrow_right Right arrow above, used to denote a vector. a⃗
accent_breve Breve. ă
accent_bar Bar/strikethrough. ɨ
accent_dot_below Dot below. ạ
accent_horn Horn accent. ơ
accent_hook_above Hook accent. ả
superscript Superscript. ᵃ
subscript Subscript. ₐ
ordinal Turns a and o into ª and º.
arrows Turns 1-4 and 6-9 into arrows.
box Turns 1-9, 0, and . into single-line, thin box-drawing characters.

Bidirectional

Value Meaning
lrm Left-to-right mark.
rlm Right-to-left mark.
b(, b), b[, b], b{, b}, blt, bgt Sends the bracket characters, but with mirrored key legends for right-to-left languages. (blt and bgt print < and > respectively.)

Hebrew

Keys ending in _placeholder are normally hidden unless the Fn key is pressed.

qamats, patah, sheva, dagesh, hiriq, segol, tsere, holam, qubuts, hataf_patah, hataf_qamats, hataf_segol, shindot, shindot_placeholder, sindot, sindot_placeholder, geresh, gershayim, maqaf, rafe, ole, ole_placeholder, meteg, meteg_placeholder

Keyboard behavior keys

Value Meaning
config Gear icon; opens Unexpected Keyboard settings.
switch_text Switch to the text layer (main layer).
switch_numeric Switch to the numeric layer.
switch_emoji Switch to the emoji layer.
switch_back_emoji Switch to the text layer from the emoji layer.
switch_forward Change the keyboard layout, as long as Unexpected Keyboard has multiple keyboard layouts enabled in the settings.
switch_backward Change the keyboard layout to the previous one in the list.
switch_greekmath Switch to the Greek & Math Symbols layer.
switch_clipboard Switch to the clipboard pane.
change_method Open the input method picker dialog.
change_method_prev Switch to the previously used input method.
action Performs a special context-sensitive operation related to the Enter key. For example, in the Twitter (X) app, enter adds a new line, while action posts.
voice_typing Begin voice typing.
voice_typing_chooser Shows a menu where you can choose which voice typing provider to use, then begins voice typing when you make a selection.
shareText Emit a share Intent for the selected text. Oddity: This is in CamelCase.

Unused

These keys are known to do nothing.

replaceText, textAssist, autofill, removed

Placeholders

These keys are normally hidden unless the Fn modifier is activated.

f11_placeholder | f12_placeholder

Complex keys

More complex keys are of this form:

:<kind> <attributes>:<payload>

Where <kind> is one of the kinds documented below and <attributes> is a space separated list of attributes. <payload> depends on the <kind>.

Attributes are:

  • symbol='Sym' specifies the symbol to be shown on the keyboard.
  • flags='<flags>' changes the behavior of the key. <flags> is a coma separated list of:
    • dim: Make the symbol dimmer.
    • small: Make the symbol smaller.

Kind str

Defines a key that outputs an arbitrary string. <payload> is a string wrapped in single-quotes ('), escaping of other single quotes is allowed with \'.

For example:

  • :str:'Arbitrary string with a \' inside'
  • :str symbol='Symbol':'Output string'

Kind char

Defines a key that outputs a single character. <payload> is the character to output, unquoted. This kind of key can be used to define a character key with a different symbol on it. char keys can be modified by ctrl and other modifiers, unlike str keys.

For example:

  • :char symbol='q':љ, which is used to implement ctrl shortcuts in cyrillic layouts.