Amidst talks of turning the Android operating system into a proper ChromeOS competitor, Google is working on a feature for Android 16 that would enable users to remap keyboard shortcuts. Of course, this depends on how the OS handles physical keyboards — and so far, it does it quite well. Android already has an existing suite of shortcuts for navigating the interface, but it doesn’t allow you to remap them, at least not officially.
There are plenty of apps you can download, but they’re limited to what the Android Accessibility API can affect. The only legitimate way to remap the keys, at least right now, is through root access. The good news is native keyboard customization could be on the way, thanks to snippets of code found in the Android 16 Beta 1 release.
Although the folks at Android Authority discovered the code, they weren’t able to activate it. The function would let users assign shortcuts to key combinations that aren’t already in use by another shortcut.
Unfortunately, Google hasn’t made any statements about the code, so we have no idea when it might release to the public. There’s a chance it might not release at all; Google often includes code in its Android beta releases that is currently in development, but it could be removed prior to release.
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However, if the code indicates a new feature, the most likely time for it to release will be with the official launch of Android 16. We expect to see the full release of Android 16 in the second quarter of 2025, most likely around June.
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