Google seems to appear more encouraged in order to improve the Android experience on big-screen devices. In the interim, the tech behemoth unveiled its Pixel Fold and Pixel Tablet. Parallelly, Android 14 has several new features that must help in this aspect. From split-screen app pairs to utilize gesture navigation in the event of dragging and dropping. Meanwhile, the substantial improvement in the new version, especially for tablet users is its external physical keyboards.
Android analyst Mishaal Rahman has unveiled a fully revamped menu for keyboard shortcuts in the Android 14 Beta 2. Whereas, this latest menu is available for large-screen devices on Android 14 right so far. At the same time, it replaces the shortcuts that we tend to find in Android 13 under Settings > System > Languages & input > Physical Keyboard. Although, on Android 14, the settings with respect to physical keyboards have been rearranged. Therefore, you will tend to find these shortcuts under Settings > System > Keyboard > Physical keyboard.
If you connect a physical keyboard to a large screen device running Android 14, under Settings > System > Keyboard > Physical keyboard, the “keyboard shortcuts” menu will now show a MUCH more comprehensive list of available keyboard shortcuts, as shown below! pic.twitter.com/lwKmvMG5Tq
— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) May 22, 2023
Also, the list is much more sturdy than its present implementation with an aggregate of 34 shortcuts for 29 separate functions. This is as compared to the 13 that we came to know on Android 13. The key combinations are now also grouped into three tabs for better organization.
New Shortcuts
As found on testing, the two of the back button shortcuts are new, whereby the Search + Backspace is already there. But Search + ~ and Search + Left Arrow are not present in Android 13. Moving ahead, Search + H to go home is also new, but Search + Enter already works respectively.
The option to press Search in order to instantly open the launcher’s search function is also new. Pressing Search now opens your Assistant app but that’s been moved to Search + A in Android 14. Notably, the Search + A shortcut open your calculator app. Whereas, the functionality is now moving to a new key combo at Search + U.
These new shortcuts come along with the ability to remap modifier keys. Therefore, if your keyboard doesn’t have a Search button then you can easily map the Ctrl, Alt, Caps Lock, Command, or Windows key to perform that function. So far, the Windows key on PC keyboards or the Command key on Apple keyboards operates as the Search key by default.
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