Google is expected to debut its first tablet in the coming months. The tablet, that Google showcased at its I/O conference earlier this year is expected to arrive with Android 13 on board. And for that, the company is working on new features to smooth out the Android tablet experience.
Android being open source means that these features will also appear in tablets from other brands. Technical editor for Esper Mishaal Rahman has been following a few threads in the Chromium Gerrit that a Samsung engineer started and that seek to implement stylus handwriting-to-text input on Android T, or Android 13, at least on editable, non-password text fields in Chrome and WebViews that are based on Chrome.
H/T to @_dinsan for first spotting the code change adding the feature flag 'stylus-input': https://t.co/9tutA5vYSF pic.twitter.com/je8hxwU32N
— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) July 21, 2022
It seems that Android 13-powered Samsung devices with an S Pen may already make use of the capability. These devices utilize an internal DirectWriting API, and a commit that makes it possible to input handwriting as text using this API has been merged into Chromium. Samsung is still working on integrating S Pen gestures into the handwriting-to-text mode via the Chromium Gerrit.
The Stylus Writing APIs in Android 13 will be used by the majority of Android devices. Currently, the developer option toggle must be set, and the overarching input method must support the APIs. More information on this feature will likely be revealed through future updates to Gboard and other keyboard apps.
RELATED:
- Google Pixel 6a fingerprint scanner suffers from a major security flaw
- Google fires software engineer that claimed that its AI chatbot is self aware
- Google Pixel Buds Pro Launched in India with ANC, Up to 31 Hours Battery: All Details
(Via: Android Police)
