UX for Android phones with physical keyboards

adam1991

This past week the Blackberry KEYone came out, complete with physical keyboard. While it happens to have some bits and pieces of software built by Blackberry, and the keyboard licensed by Blackberry, it is an Android 7.1.1 phone, make no mistake. There is none of the old Blackberry 10 "you can side load some Android things if you're lucky" nonsense here. This is pure Google Play territory. (18 months or so ago they released a similar phone, the Priv.)

So because it's real Android, 1P works perfectly well, from a pure technical sense. Overall, it works just like it does on my LG V10.

That's not to say that I like how it works on my V10 with respect to the user experience. The dance to change keyboards for the single task of entering login information is awkward at best.

Now throw in a physical keyboard and BB's mechanism for allowing for a "virtual" (screen) keyboard, and there's an extra level of awkwardness thrown in there on top of the inherent awkwardness I describe above.

To wit: while the KEYone has a virtual keyboard, the user generally never sees it. There's no reason to. The user is using the physical keyboard. But: should the user choose, he can make a system setting always to see the VKB no matter what. With that system setting set, if you're entering text, the VKB is always displayed. On the surface, that sounds silly. And in general it is silly.

But, the virtual KB is what we have to use for 1P. I can swipe down and change keyboards to the 1P keyboard, just like any Android phone. But here's the extra awkwardness: it doesn't show up unless I ALSO go somewhere else and temporarily turn on the option to show the VKB all the time.

I have to do the "change keyboard" dance, PLUS I have to hit ANOTHER notification that takes me to a system area where I turn on "always show VKB".

Then when I'm finished logging in, the next time I go to enter text the 1P VKB shows up--because I've chosen it, AND I've told the BB always to show the VKB. So I have to do the same two-step extra-awkward dance to change back to the BB VKB and change the system setting not to show the VKB.

Now, you may ask: why not simply keep my keyboard pref to the 1P keyboard? Perhaps do that, and then the only change I'd have to make is to show the VKB and then change it back. Well, the problem is when I'm using the PKB, not all characters are available. If I need to type some special symbol, I touch the "sym" key and voila! up pops a screen KB full of symbols. I choose what I want, then go back to the physical KB. Here's the problem: if my chosen VKB is the 1P VKB, hitting the "sym" button gives me a very small matrix of symbols--not at ALL the extensive symbol set that the Blackberry KB puts up on screen (actually, two screens worth).

So to summarize: the awkwardness inherent using 1P on an Android phone, is simply magnified when that Android phone has a physical keyboard. (At least, when it has a Blackberry keyboard. I don't know what happens when you have a Samsung outfitted with the keyboard case and the keyboard itself snapped on.)

I have no answer for this, nor any suggestions. Technically, it all works. All I can say is, if you've ever thought yourselves unhappy with the Android phone UX and thought maybe there must be a better way, then the existence of a physical KB and its degradation of the 1P UX should do nothing but incent you to find that better way.

In the meantime, I'll just keep using it--because, of course, not to use 1P is insane. I'm not going back.

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1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Android 7.1.1
Sync Type: 1Password account

AGAlumB

@adam1991: Interesting. First, thanks for the kind words, and taking the time to share this with us! While we don't currently have any specific plans to design 1Password around hardware keyboard use (this is fairly uncommon currently), it's certainly something we can take into consideration going forward. And with the new filling mechanisms coming in Android O, we may find that this becomes less of an issue (along with other 1Password Keyboard workflow issues). But either way, we'll keep working to make the 1Password experience smoother overall — though we recognize that filling in particular is really important. Thanks again for your support and offering a different perspective. :)

shlgug

I just got a keyone too. They are built for business people, and would expect them to become popular as such.

peri

Thanks @shlgug. As brenty mentioned, we've added support for filling implementations that don't rely on the keyboard, which should hopefully make this less of a problem as the devices become more popular. :)