Disable Tap recognition and/or screen turned off

AnkiDroid (Android) Help
1

I do long bike rides outside and I have been trying to use a small wireless bluetooth controller to do my card reviews (all audio-based).

I hold the controller in one hand and click buttons on it as I ride and it gets me through the reviews.
My phone sits inside of one of the back pockets in my jerseys. It looks something like this.

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This has worked really well in the past. I don’t have to touch my phone and I actually pay more attention to the cards’ content as opposed to sitting at a desk with no other stimulation.

But with the heat waves we’ve been getting lately, I start sweating, the jersey gets moist and then no matter which way I put the phone (screen facing in/out or upside down) it keeps registering slight movements as taps and swipes all over the screen. Now instead of being able to get my cards done, the unintended swiping and tapping:

  • answers cards
  • switches decks
  • switches in and out of the app
  • enables drawing mode and scribbles stuff all over the screen
  • spams screenshots
  • undoes reviews

The list goes on. The iOS version apparently has an accessibility feature that disables tap recognition and I was wondering if there was something similar (or a workaround) for Android or if this could be a planned feature.
I would want to be able to disable taps for the whole screen (including back/home/tabs buttons because it also keeps kicking me back to the phone’s home screen). Or is there a way for the app to be able to register input (answer buttons, replay audio, undo) while the screen is turned off? (i.e. like music apps)

P.S. Today it was so bad that I ended up hearing this sentence five times:
“Es hat mir jeden erdenklichen Widerstand in den Weg gelegt!” - how coincidental! As if it was trying to drill the point!

2

Apparently some android phones have an accessibility setting for that. It’s called Interaction Control.

3

In some phones it’s also called pocket mode. It doesn’t work that well in my experience, though might be better in more premium (and newer) phones.

4

I found this in my phone settings. It does block any taps/swipes from being detected but it also blocks the controller input as well - so I can’t actually use it.

5

Here is a potential workaround:

  1. Disable the toolbar and answer buttons from the settings.
  2. Open the app from one of the widgets or by long pressing on the AnkiDroid icon and tapping “study”.
  3. Find a way to “pin” the app in your device.
  4. Start reviewing.
6

So I went into Settings → Appearance → Study Screen

I can go one by one selecting stuff to show or hide, which means I can disable most of the on-screen buttons and most stuff that would be pressed accidentally (answer buttons, undo button, whiteboard toggle) is now hidden. (I can still answer cards with the controller)

I can also switch my navigation bar to swipes while I’m riding and maybe that’ll help with the random exiting of the app / deck.

This technically fixes my problem - however I will note it’s probably going to be tedious to go in and change all the settings one by one (because sometimes I do just do regular reviews on my phone without the controller and of course would need the buttons for that).

Maybe this can be a feature request: “profiles” for the settings where we just switch between different profiles so I don’t have to manually switch them all on/off.

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Edit: Fullscreen Mode looks nice. It might just be what I’m looking for.

7

I just turned on fullscreen mode and switched my phone’s navigation bar to swipes.

2 hour ride, 32 degree heat, and I only encountered one or two issues with random pressing during the whole time.
This can be turned on and off with one button press.
I’ll take it!

1 Like
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