When it splits
Flikzi splits when the screen is at least 600 density-independent pixels wide. In practice that means:
- the inner screen of a book-style foldable, such as a Galaxy Z Fold, Pixel Fold or vivo X Fold,
- Android tablets,
- phones held in landscape.
In settings you can choose Auto (split on wide screens), Always or Off.
How the split keyboard works
- The split you know. The left half has q to t, a to g and z to b, with
?123and the comma. The right half has y to p, h to l, n and m, with the emoji key, the full stop and Enter. It is the split a two-thumb typist expects. - Words in the middle. Hexagons fill the space between the halves, two or three columns of them: six words on an unfolded foldable, nine on a wide tablet. They are the words for what you’re typing, with the one space will use in the middle row, outlined in amber. You can pick one without looking up at the strip. As soon as a text field opens, and after each space, they offer likely next words.
- One honeycomb. The word hexagons continue the rows of keys, so the two halves and the words fit together. Empty spots are drawn faintly.
- Pinyin readings in the middle. In Chinese, the middle shows the ways your letters can be read as syllables while the characters stay in the strip. Tap a reading to use it, and swipe sideways across the middle for more. Chinese pinyin.
- A space bar for each thumb. The bar splits too. The left one switches language and hides the keyboard; the right one changes case. Both type spaces, delete with a swipe and move the cursor when held.
- Clipboard keys at the outer edges. The left half has the copy and cut keys beside its space bar, and the right half paste and select all.
- No wasted screen. On a tall screen the keyboard takes at most a third of its height (a little more on a phone held sideways, so the keys stay big enough to hit), and it never switches to a full-screen text box in landscape.
Every gesture works the same on both halves: flick a letter up for its capital, down for a digit or a mark, and swipe either space bar to delete. The number keys split the same way. One-handed mode is for phones held upright, so it stays off on wide screens. All the gestures.
Where it’s tested
Flikzi is being tested on a book-style vivo foldable with a 2200 × 2480 inner screen, both folded and unfolded, alongside regular phones, and on 7-inch and 10-inch tablet emulators, upright and sideways.
Why a split keyboard helps on a foldable
An unfolded foldable is too wide to type on with thumbs using a full-width keyboard: the middle keys are out of reach. Splitting the keys into two halves brings every key within reach of one thumb or the other, and the space in the middle is the natural place for the word choices you’d otherwise look up at the strip to see.