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Comment by davidmurdoch | Hacker News Reader

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davidmurdoch·

Not a single mention of the biggest problem, by far, of text editing on Android: no undo?

Fix that before literally anything else on Android, please.

> too many people mistakenly see text editing as “done”

I can't imagine anyone that uses both desktop and mobile to think mobile text editing doesn't need improvements.

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Seriously, it is beyond ridiculous that the default keyboard doesn't have an undo button anywhere. Copy/paste take way too many taps too. I like the changes to cursor motion proposed in the article.

> no undo

It works fine, you just need a keyboard what would allow you to send Ctrl+Z.

Yes, there should be a menu item (at least in a pop-up) too...

BTW, there is a API to add your things to that pop-up (like for searching providers etc) so there is a chance you can make it.

iOS has "shake to undo", which isn't perfect, but at least it's something.

It’s clunky, you look utterly ridiculous whilst doing it, but it is occasionally very useful. I’ve found that the UI gets better about putting undo arrows everywhere, though. But then even that is not really elegant.

Or tap with three fingers to bring up the tools menu, or double-tab with three fingers to undo. Still a bit clunky.

You can also do settings->accessibility->touch->back tap and set a single/double tap to send the ‘shake’ gesture.

Also AssistiveTouch gives you a menu that can be accessed on any screen on which one of the options is to simulate a shake.

E.g., Unexpected Keyboard has modifier keys and I can use it to enter Ctrl+Z on Android.

And a lot of other shortcuts, too (cut, copy, paste, select all, home/end, etc).

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