Keyboard modes
Per-app and per-field profiles with auto-activation.
Keyboard modes is a single screen with two levels: a list of modes, and a per-mode editor that decides what a mode changes and when it turns on. For the concepts behind modes (how activation is resolved, and the on-keyboard Modes tool that lets you override the pick by hand), see Modes & the symbol row; this page walks the settings screen itself.
You reach this screen three ways: Home → Keyboard modes, the settings search index, or the on-keyboard Modes tool’s own settings entry (Edit keyboard modes, which shows the live mode count as its value). All three land on the same list.
The modes list
Section titled “The modes list”Each row shows the mode’s icon, its name, and a one-line summary of what triggers it: “Manual only, from the Modes tool” for a mode with no apps or field types bound, otherwise “Automatic:” followed by the app count and/or the field types it’s bound to, joined with a + because both have to match. The shipped Chat mode reads “Automatic: 15 apps + text, notification replies fields”. Tapping a row opens that mode’s editor; the trailing delete icon removes the mode immediately, with no confirmation prompt.
New mode adds a row and opens a fresh editor. The mode isn’t written to disk until you make your first edit inside it; backing out of an untouched new-mode editor leaves nothing behind.
Editing a mode
Section titled “Editing a mode”Tapping a mode opens Edit mode, starting with its Name (shown in the Modes tool) and Icon: a picker of 36 bare-icon chips (tune, chat, forum, write, note, article, book, mail, lock, shield, key, web, search, code, terminal, work, school, science, home, person, group, call, shopping, money, calendar, game, music, video, camera, palette, travel, fitness, cloud, bolt, star, favorite) in a scrolling grid, no text labels or clear option.
What this mode changes
Section titled “What this mode changes”Every override here defaults to Inherit (unset, so the mode falls through to whatever the global setting says), except on the six built-in modes, which ship with specific values (see the table below).
| Override | Options |
|---|---|
| Emoji row | Inherit / Off / Button / Row |
| Symbol row | Inherit / On / Off |
| Theme | Inherit, or any built-in or custom theme |
| Custom pinned tools | Off, or a toolbar tool list of its own |
| Custom toolbox order | Off, or a toolbox order of its own |
| Custom symbol sets | Off, or a symbol-set list of its own |
Theme opens a picker: Inherit, Default (system), the built-in themes, then your own custom themes alphabetically. A Clear button appears once a theme is set. Picking one adds a note that while the mode is active, the keyboard wears that theme regardless of what’s set elsewhere (including standing down an auto light/dark pair for the mode’s lifetime), and your own choice returns unchanged the moment the mode ends.
Custom pinned tools, once turned on, reveals a Pinned tools behaviour choice: Add to mine (appends to your global pins) or Replace mine (only these tools are pinned). It also adds a chip picker over your currently enabled, build-supported tools, and a Modify pinned tool order drag-to-reorder dialog. Switching to “Add to mine” drops any tool that’s already one of your global pins, so it doesn’t appear twice.
Custom toolbox order works the same way minus the append/replace choice: turning it on seeds an empty list, a chip picker adds tools, and Modify toolbox order reorders them. The picked tools lead the toolbox panel; everything else keeps its usual place behind them.
Custom symbol sets seeds from your current symbol-row sets (or the built-in defaults if none are enabled), offers every set (built-in and custom) as toggle chips, guards against emptying the list to zero, and reorders with Modify symbol set order. The first set in that order is what the symbol row opens on while the mode is active.
Activate automatically for
Section titled “Activate automatically for”Field types is a row of chips for the seven kinds a mode can match: Password, Email, URL, Number, Phone, Text, Notification replies.
Text means plain free-text only: a password field is excluded from it even though it also reports as text-capable, so a mode bound to Text can never take over a login form.
Notification replies is the inline reply box in the notification shade, and it’s the one chip that ignores the app list. That box is drawn by the system UI, so the package the keyboard sees there is the shell’s, never the app whose notification you’re answering. A mode with this chip ticked matches the box whatever its bound apps say, which is how the shipped Chat mode still gets chat treatment in a reply you fire off without opening the app.
Below that is the app list: one row per bound app (resolved to its display name, falling back to the raw package name), each removable, plus an Add app row that opens a searchable picker of every launcher app on the device.
Setting apps and field types together means both must match: a mode bound to your chat apps and the Text field type stays off their search boxes. Setting only one matches on that alone; setting neither leaves the mode manual-only, reachable only from the Modes tool. Notification replies is the single exception to the AND, as above. When several modes match at once, one that names a field type beats one that only names apps, and a mode picked by hand from the Modes tool wins until you switch apps. See How a mode gets picked for the full resolution order.
Reset and delete
Section titled “Reset and delete”At the bottom of the editor, Delete mode removes it immediately, no confirmation. Reset to default appears only on the six built-in modes (matched by ID, so an edited built-in still offers it); a user-created mode has nothing to reset to. It asks to confirm first: resetting discards your edits and puts the mode’s pinned tools, toolbox order, symbol row, apps and field types back to what it ships with.
The six default modes
Section titled “The six default modes”Six modes are seeded on first run. You can edit or delete any of them freely.
| Mode | Emoji row | Symbol row | Toolbar | Toolbox leads with | Apps | Field types |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Passwords | Off | Off | Replaced: password generator, clipboard, settings | Password generator, clipboard, snippets, numpad, symbols, settings | — | Password |
| Inherit | On (Email, Punctuation) | Inherit | Clipboard, snippets, text edit, voice, symbols | — | ||
| Browser | Inherit | On (Web) | Inherit | Clipboard, web search, snippets, QR scan, voice, incognito | — | URL |
| Chat | Always on | Inherit | Added: emoji, GIF, sticker, voice | Grammar, translate, camera, image search, clipboard, snippets, then the pinned four | 15: Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal, Discord, Facebook, Facebook Lite, TikTok, Snapchat, Viber, LINE, KakaoTalk, WeChat, Beeper | Text, Notification replies |
| Writing | Inherit | On (Punctuation) | Replaced: AI, text edit, voice, clipboard, emoji | Grammar, dictionary, OCR, doc scan, calendar, clipboard, snippets, translate, undo, redo, then the pinned five | Keep, Google Docs, Samsung Notes, Word, OneNote, Obsidian, Notion, Evernote, Joplin, Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail, ProtonMail, K-9 Mail | Text |
| Coding | Inherit | On (Coding, Math) | Inherit | Snippets, clipboard, text edit, symbols, calculator, numpad, undo, redo, cursor keys | Termux, Acode, RK Editor, Spck | — |
Passwords and Writing replace the toolbar outright rather than adding to it; Chat appends its four tools to whatever you already have pinned.
An install that already had a saved mode list before these modes grew gets topped up on upgrade, in two rounds so far:
- Chat and Writing were added as whole modes the first time, since a stored list frozen before they existed would never have picked them up.
- Chat’s own bindings were topped up in the round after that: the nine apps it was missing (Facebook, Facebook Lite, TikTok, Snapchat, Viber, LINE, KakaoTalk, WeChat, Beeper) and the Notification replies field type were appended to the stored mode.
Both rounds run once and leave your edits alone. A mode you’ve deleted isn’t re-added, an app you’d already bound to some other mode is skipped rather than routed twice, and a field type the mode already has isn’t duplicated.
Rearranging tools
Section titled “Rearranging tools”This toggle lives on the modes list screen, not inside an individual editor: it governs what happens when you drag a tool on the keyboard itself while a mode with its own pinned tools or toolbox order is active.
Drags edit the active mode (on by default) sends that drag into the currently active mode, so the rearrangement sticks specifically for apps that resolve to that mode, while every other app keeps its own arrangement. Turn it off and drags always edit the global tool order instead; if the active mode still prescribes its own list, that list keeps winning on screen regardless, since a mode’s fixed list applies on every redraw. A mode with no pinned tools or toolbox order of its own is unaffected either way, since there’s nothing for it to own.
Tool order can differ per app: whichever mode an app resolves to decides the arrangement you see there.
Options
Section titled “Options”| Setting | Default |
|---|---|
| Keyboard modes list | 6 seeded modes (table above) |
| Drags edit the active mode | On |
| Setting | Default |
|---|---|
| Name | Mode-specific (see table above) |
| Icon | Mode-specific |
| Emoji row | Inherit, except the six built-ins listed above |
| Symbol row | Inherit, except the six built-ins listed above |
| Theme | Inherit |
| Custom pinned tools | Off, except Passwords/Chat/Writing |
| Custom toolbox order | Off; all six built-ins define their own toolbox order |
| Custom symbol sets | Off, except Email/Browser/Writing/Coding |
| Field types | Mode-specific |
| Apps | Mode-specific |
Details & edge cases
Section titled “Details & edge cases”- A brand-new mode isn’t saved until its first edit. Navigating into a freshly created mode’s editor and backing out without changing anything leaves the modes list exactly as it was.
- Only the six shipped modes offer Reset to default, matched by ID; renaming a built-in mode doesn’t lose its reset option, but a mode you created from scratch never gets one.
- Deleting a mode, from either the list or the editor, has no confirmation dialog. Resetting a built-in mode does.
- Field types beat apps when modes collide. If two modes could both apply, the one that names a field type is preferred over one that only names apps: a password field inside a coding app still gets the Passwords mode.
- The tool and symbol-set pickers only offer what’s currently available. A tool that’s disabled globally, or unsupported in your build (for example a lite build without the tools that need ML Kit or the grammar engine), doesn’t appear in a mode’s own pinned-tools or toolbox-order chip list either.
- Legacy installs migrate quietly. Older Browser and Email modes that still carried hard-coded app lists from before they became field-only are migrated to app-less bindings automatically when their settings are next read.
Related pages
Section titled “Related pages”- Modes & the symbol row — the concepts: how activation is resolved, the on-keyboard Modes tool for manual overrides, and the symbol row these modes can also control.
- Rows & bars — the global symbol row, row order and symbol-set editor that a mode’s overrides sit on top of.
- Themes — the theme picker a mode’s Theme override opens.
- Tools — the toolbar tools and toolbox a mode’s pinned-tools and toolbox-order overrides rearrange.