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ADBKeyBoard

Android Virtual Keyboard Input via ADB

ADBKeyBoard is a virtual keyboard that receives commands from system broadcast intents, which you can send text input using adb.

There is a shell command 'input', which can help you send text input to the Android system.

usage: input [text|keyevent]
  input text 
  input keyevent

But you cannot send unicode characters using this command, as it is not designed to use it this way.
Reference : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14224549/adb-shell-input-unicode-character

e.g.
adb shell input text '你好嗎' 
is not going to work.

ADBKeyboard will help in these cases, especially in device automation and testings.

Download APK from release page

Build and install APK

With one device or emulator connected, use these simple steps to install the keyboard:

  • Get source: git clone https://github.com/senzhk/ADBKeyBoard.git
  • Go into project dir cd ADBKeyBoard
  • Set Android SDK location: export ANDROID_HOME=$HOME/Android/Sdk or edit file local.properties
  • Build and install: ./gradlew installDebug

How to Use

  • Enable 'ADBKeyBoard' in the Language&Input Settings OR from adb.
adb install ADBKeyboard.apk 
adb shell ime enable com.android.adbkeyboard/.AdbIME
adb shell ime set com.android.adbkeyboard/.AdbIME
  • Set it as Default Keyboard OR Select it as the current input method of certain EditText view.
  • Sending Broadcast intent via Adb or your Android Services/Apps.

Usage Example:

1. Sending text input
adb shell am broadcast -a ADB_INPUT_TEXT --es msg '你好嗎? Hello?'

* This may not work for Oreo/P, am/adb command seems not accept utf-8 text string anymore

1.1 Sending text input (base64) if (1) is not working.

* For Mac/Linux, you can use the latest base64 input type with base64 command line tool:
adb shell am broadcast -a ADB_INPUT_B64 --es msg `echo -n '你好嗎? Hello?' | base64`

* For Windows, please try this script (provided by ssddi456): 
https://gist.github.com/ssddi456/889d5e8a2571a33e8fcd0ff6f1288291

* Sample python script to send b64 codes (provided by sunshinewithmoonlight):
import os
import base64
chars = '的广告'
charsb64 = str(base64.b64encode(chars.encode('utf-8')))[1:]
os.system("adb shell am broadcast -a ADB_INPUT_B64 --es msg %s" %charsb64)

2. Sending keyevent code  (67 = KEYCODE_DEL)
adb shell am broadcast -a ADB_INPUT_CODE --ei code 67

3. Sending editor action (2 = IME_ACTION_GO)
adb shell am broadcast -a ADB_EDITOR_CODE --ei code 2

4. Sending unicode characters
To send 😸 Cat
adb shell am broadcast -a ADB_INPUT_CHARS --eia chars '128568,32,67,97,116'

5. Send meta keys
To send Ctrl + A as below: (4096 is META_CONTROL_ON, 8192 is META_CONTROL_LEFT_ON, 29 is KEYCODE_A)
adb shell am broadcast -a ADB_INPUT_TEXT --es mcode '4096,29' // one metaState.
or
adb shell am broadcast -a ADB_INPUT_TEXT --es mcode '4096+8192,29' // two metaState.


6. CLEAR all text (starting from v2.0)
adb shell am broadcast -a ADB_CLEAR_TEXT

Enable ADBKeyBoard from adb :

adb shell ime enable com.android.adbkeyboard/.AdbIME

Switch to ADBKeyBoard from adb (by robertio) :

adb shell ime set com.android.adbkeyboard/.AdbIME

Switch back to original virtual keyboard: (swype in my case...)

adb shell ime set com.nuance.swype.dtc/com.nuance.swype.input.IME

Check your available virtual keyboards:

adb shell ime list -a

Reset to default, don't care which keyboard was chosen before switch:

adb shell ime reset

You can try the apk with my debug build: https://github.com/senzhk/ADBKeyBoard/raw/master/ADBKeyboard.apk

KeyEvent Code Ref: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/KeyEvent.html

Editor Action Code Ref: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/inputmethod/EditorInfo.html