IssueTracker

This feature would greatly improve the usability of text fields.

[Comment deleted]

I would like to claim primacy in requesting this feature on 2010-Feb-01:

http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss/browse_thread/thread/136481cd81836d7/091d419759545e92

Seriously, WTF no undo!?

Looks like I just lost lots of data

[Comment deleted]

This seems pretty simple.

I can't believe such a basic feature was omitted! It's such an odd thing to overlook, doesn't everyone use undo regularly?

Please consider adding this essential feature asap.

[Comment deleted]

[Comment deleted]

[Comment deleted]

This is a must. Unbelievable in 2010! This should be a global function (e.g. like in Palm OS).

As far as I can tell, 2.2 doesn't have undo either. Honestly, I would hope this could be implemented as a bug-fix instead of an enhancement, and that way older OS could be updated with it as well.

Maybe initiated as a market app such as was done with Google Maps navigation?

This is ridiculous. No undo function in an OS in 2010?

undo is good...

Yup, undo is essential. If they're going to develop so many office and memo/tasks apps, then they should have expected people to really miss the undo button. It can't really be that hard to implement stack data structure for individual text editing programs right?

Seriously, wtf... no undo? I just got my first Android phone... can't believe there is no undo! My WinMo 5 phone even did this.  

now.

There's a bunch of quirky things to Android, but this is the top! On my HTC G2 with qwerty, the Delete button is right above the Enter button. I must lose a huge chunky text message once a day, probably more!

The way Android handels text editing DRIVES ME CRAZY. It's not just no UNDO. CUT, COPY, PASTE and text selection is also needing some better methods. On my "old" palm: I could swipe text with my finger for selection, then using the keyboard do CUT, COPY, PASTE or UNDO. No special modes or screens, start of text selection, end of text selection. It was much simpler. I can't believe that this is only rated at Medium priority. I often want to throw the phone away for this issue alone. I've lost some important text that I can't get back. Highly Frustrating!!

On Comment 19: If you have a physical keyboard, the combination menu+z does work as undo. At least on my Motorola Milestone. And AFAIK Motorola has not customized the OS at all.

Zzzzz

On my motorola droid (which is the US version of the milestone) I'm running bugless beast (it's an AOSP froyo rom with gingerbread bits) menu z just prints zs and opens the menu. :(

You're just holding down the menu key like a modifier right?

@21:

This also depends on what keyboard you're using. I have a D1, and I know the stock keyboard & the latest version of swype have the copy/cut/paste shortcuts, while SwiftKey does not.

@22, as far as I can tell on-screen keyboards can't do cut and paste. I have a nexus S and can't find any way of doing it (you can't even hit menu and Z at the same time bc the menu covers Z.

Nexus S is as stock and new android as it gets.

that last comment was referring to Undo, my bad.

[Comment deleted]

Sorry I was a little vague;
To clarify, I was referring to those shortcuts while using one of the aforementioned keyboard interfaces, but actually pressing the commands on a hardware keyboard. As you mentioned, these shortcuts will not work with any software keyboard. Furthermore, there is no Undo function to be found any OS, any keyboard.

Sorry, my mistake (#20). I remembered wrong. Menu+X, Menu+C and Menu+V work, but Menu+Z does nothing. So no undo on the Milestone either.

Blahzz

This just screwed me big time. I will switch OS's if this is not fixed within a few months. It has gone on way too long and is totally amateur for computers not to have this integral feature that has been around for so long. This is among the most important features for a computer to have and as a business user I am unable to trust a machine to treat my data properly without it. Fix it tonight please, this is crap.

MAJOR fail.  Just switched from Windows Mobile and can't believe all the features I've lost, but this one is the most glaring.

Perhaps the Android development team should volunteer to cease using undo in their development environments until this one is fixed?

"Medium Defect"?  Really?

What's missing here?  Is it a defect in the API that the soft-keyboards must use, or has every single soft-keyboard developer just overlooked this?

If it's a more fundamental problem, could we have an outline of the steps to fix?  If Menu+z works with some hardware keyboards, I'm guessing there's some code already buried there somewhere?

Tim.

Menu + Z doesn't work ever.

My guess without looking at the code, but from working on other undo codes:

We need:
*An undo queue that tracks all changes to text and breaks them down into useful chunks
*UI elements and hotkeys that tell the undo queue how many change chunks to pop.
*Text editing code that checks the validity of popped chunks and applies them to the text
*Since this is at the OS level we probably need code to decide when the undo queue is no longer valid (cause the user has moved to a new app or submitted the form or something) and discard it. It should probably tend toward keeping code than destorying it.

Remember that it isn't just *text editing* that needs to be able to be undone. For instance, I was sorting some data in a spreadsheet the other day and accidentally sorted one column without its neighboring ones included; rendered the entire sheet invalid as the data were essentially now "scrambled." I had to discard the whole spreadsheet and start all over from scratch—which one simple Undo [Sort] would have alleviated.

J...@Bravo.name,

I think you may need to file a new bug report for that one. That kind of content-aware app-specific undo isn't provided exclusively by the OS. I've seen some apps that have similar undo functionality already. You should take undoing sort up with the developer of your app.

Perhaps more importantly, from the OP, this is a bug about undoing typing. It's probably a step in the right direction for other undoing, but keeping this bug specific and discrete will make sure it gets done sooner.

It should be there for all android versions

More votes for this to be above 'medium' prio... More like 'immediate' or what ever your ticketing system uses for most urgent.

Spreadsheets and other applications are probably a concern for 3rd party developers, so I won't be nagging about those.

However the text input control and other stock android UI controls where applicable should get this feature as soon as possible.

Also standardizing menu+z as the convention would be something good to add to UI developer guidelines (if you have a such thing) for those before mentioned 3rd party developers.

Thank you. I've been Android user for 5 days now. It has a lot of potential. Keep up the good work.

I am glad its been well over year and there doesn't seem to be any progress or resolution.  i want undo maan.

On Droid 1 with slide out keyboard: Alt-P to get a zero is treacherous without undo with the delete key right next door. At least once a day, I slip and Alt-delete an entire line of text.

Specifically googled this last year and was shocked to find there's no undo for typing.

In the hope that the more valid comments we place, the more likely it is that we get an 'Undo' in the feature, I would like to join the request for an undo command in the edit box.

Too many times, I have 'pasted' a value , in stead of starting the mark . I always have to manually erase the pasted data.

An undo would greatly ease the 'typing' experience.

I would say that it wouldn't be such a big issue if alt-del weren't extremely easy to press by mistake on hard keyboards. The alt is the outer most key on the Milestone and the backspace is the second most often used key besides the space because the keyboard isn't so well designed (no separate keys on the bezel). Either make alt-del erase everything only on the condition that they are pressed simultaneously (not alt, then del) or add undo

very basic requirement considering the UI doesn't have much control over too much accidental deletions.

I will come back to WP7!!!! Bye Android - you're suck.

I agree with comment #40 - this is only a big issue because it's so easy to press alt-del and erase the whole line. It's like this on my Droid. Do newer phones with QWERTY keypads have the same issue?

#40 is definitely compounded by the fact that on the milestone/droid, numbers are not distinct keys and need alt. This makes the alt usage very frequent and alt-del very frequent and frustrating

I have a Backflip which has a physical keyboard. I've never hit alt-backspace (delete) I can see how it would be frustrating but I guess I've been lucky. But an undo feature would be great to have.

Undo is absolutely necessary, not just for text but for as many things as possible, just like in any modern OS in computers.

So yeah I'd like to throw in my vote and comment for adding undo. Is there really no work being done on this, or it just not being tracked here.  Surely the Android team must recognize this as a serious omission...

. . Comming from an Touch Pro 2 (Windows Mobile with full qwerty, modifier keys and arrows keys) I find this lack of "ctrl+c", "ctrl+v", "ctrl+x" and "ctrl+z" (or command, if you're into mac) disgusting. Also, most of the screens doesn't have a "cancel" button. Say you started to edit a field and changed your mind about the changes. There is no way of canceling the changes and getting the original value back into the input.
. . The lack of these features is outrageous.

undo + cancel , please
see also issue 36923961

This whole discussion is making me think about NOT buying an Android enabled device. I know the iPhone can undo things easily, how come this is not a built-in Android function? And why it's Defunct and Medium???????

could it be possible to implement an undo on the htc keyboard at least? i found it's very used

@ tibya

I have decided to jump ship and go to iPhone with my next purchase.  I am trying to steer others away from Android when I can.  It's just a huge mess.

@tibya and @allopatr

I also advise my friends not to buy android phones.
I don't think it is just mature enough at the moment for normal users.
Although i personally still use it. Just bought Galaxy S 2 a week ago.

Please add undo feature(s).

Not a single reply or statement to this by a developer in over 18 months. Same for issue 36923961, whilst lack of undo keeps being frustrating.

I guess, it is time to recognize that google just won't give us undo. In a rapidly growing market, shiny new bells and whistles more easily translate to sales than fixing a basic usability flaw.

This is absolutely unacceptable. 'Undo' and several other basic functionality features--every developer knows which ones I am talking about--should be included in Android's standard keyboard. This is the single, most important update we need. Please, take us seriously!

The real bummer here is that people don't even know that this page exists. EVERYONE I know with an Android phone has had an issue with the lack of undo. But NONE of them had even heard of this page.

If we can get everyone to STAR this issue, so that it's significantly more than 100+ strong, I'm sure Google will at least consider it. As it is now, it looks like about 200 people are having the issue.

I'm speculating here, but implementing undo would take a long time to code (as opposed to some other frustrating bugs that would probably take a day to fix); otherwise the custom ROM people would have implemented it already. It's understandably unreasonable for Google to implement this "standard feature" for only 200 people.

[Comment deleted]

When I posted this bug, I thought that in no time this would reach one of the top 5, and will soon be fixed. Unfortunately, even after 1 year 8 months, it has gathered only 120 stars and thus, has not been even reviewed by any developer. Pretty sure every user wants this fixed.  

Ok, I spread this on my twitter and my facebook now. Feel free to retweet:  http://mobile.twitter.com/svanstroll/status/123702799153364992

If somebody likes to create a facebook page, we have ourselves an instant campain! :)  

Android is the best mobile SO... just make it perfect!

An undo feature would be very helpful

Google is going to unveil the Ice Cream Sandwich release in a few hours:
http://www.youtube.com/android
If their are listening to users they will probably implement this feature and many of the most starred ones in this issue tracker (you know this is not the most requested feature)

I just tested the new Xperia Mini Pro, and the IME in that one deleted a LOT of text really quickly if you keep the backspace button pressed. I've only used it for a couple of days, and already swore at least four times because of this, and the lack of undo to get my text back. :P

Tablets are not phone... undo feature is ESSENTIAL for taking live notes, also many tablets now take advantage of hardware keyboards (like asus transformer), so CTRL+Z must be a viable option like CTRL+C/V for copy paste. At least ONE text buffer is a bare minimum, i would prefer infinite undo positions depending on memory available. But when you have a huge text, and accidently you block-select an entire paragraph then overwrite the text with a single keystroke, you would trow the whole tablet out of the window!!! No way to recover from the mistake... it's absurd.

What about an "undo" button on software keyboard like in iPad ?
Also, this could be invoked using Ctrl+Backspace or other key combination for those having a phisical keyboard connected to the device.

This request seems to be Defunct...
If you've starred this, please star this too, since it's marked as a "Medium Enhancement":

Issue 36923961: Undo
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=13329

Undo now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please add UNDO/REDO functionality. Thank you, devs.

A.I.type keyboard includes UNDO, but this should still be a system wide feature. I make mistakes!

Do I really need to add that android needs to add an undo/redo function. I just picked up a freebie tablet, 6 hours ago... Lucky me. I already have an ipad, which i use a lot for qork... really lucky me.  The delete button on the touch keyboard stuck  (wtf!? - this has happened a couple of times now) And deleted most of the text in a fairly long email. I then fund no undo (nw annoyed)

.... while yuor at it a decent spell check/autocrrect wouldnt hurt . Im already sick of correcting my hamfigured typing.

Right niw theres niw way im using this to replace my ipad

Please, please, please.

Really major flaw for otherwise great OS.

google is great except for
1) no undo
2) android gmail having only VERY basic features
3) Outlook sync issues because of Google arrogance that are killing my data - have to go back to symbian :(

Shocked to discover this shortcomng, even more shocked to see that this has been ignored for years...

I dont expect anyone from google read this, but let you know that i have spend a lot of money on my tablet, and after discovering that i cannot undo after a huge text block ripping by mistake, i have thrown it away, bought a 200$ window$ netbook, and now i am much more satisfied. Tablets for taking notes on the run is simply waste of time and money, cursor is also sooooo slow, cant move word by word, and (guess that) you cannot undo typing at all!  I'm disgusted by android quality as a netbook replacement.

At first, members of the community show polite discontent and asked
Google, please, to take this matter seriously. After two years and
several updates, I agree, it's time to show a bit of anger. Perhaps
that's the recipe for them to take this issue on board. In my view,
Android has missed the point entirely ignoring the development of a
fancy input method for tablet displays - apart from being a better
experience browsing the internet, watching movies/pics and playing
games; faster, laptop-like typing is the only additional advantage
compared to smaller displays. We want undo NOW! Otherwise many Android
tablet users will get a quad-core iPad 3 when they are fed up of a
sluggish OS where productivity is a no-no.

I have ICS but I can't find the "undo" when typing.  Has it been added yet?  It seems like a basic feature...

No, it hasn't been added, despite having been requests for more than 2 years here and in other Google Code issues.

You can also see that nobody from @google.com ever replied, which means that Google doesn't give a shit on their own code.google.com Android issues, and you're better off with a custom ROM, where there might be a chance that Undo exists or gets implemented.

Undo - need function!

No Undo on Android, is like being a drawer or a writer without a rubber.
Google thInks Android's users are God, like itself, never do a mistake mwahaha

I have lost text from several emails and/or on web browsers after somehow hitting the wrong key. The lack of an "undo" key is unacceptable in this day and age. Honestly,  people are paying hundreds (sometimes thousands) of dollars on android smart/super phones and tablets - there should be a list of criteria that are mandatory to include in systems such as Android, for quality control. I have lost countless hours through having this happen routinely - I do try to type in a word processing program and copy and paste - but I don't always remember to do this when replying to emails in a hurry. One of the sole purposes of the Android system is to be able to send and receive emails (and the like) - I consider an "undo" feature to be necessary, when typing - especially considering the sometimes sporadic behavior of touch pads. I was going to upgrade to a Google Nexus for my next phone, and buy an Asus Eee PC prime - I am certainly glad I discovered this issue first - as to purchase these systems as a university student in a professional program would be to throw my money away [without a rudimentary 'undo']...

Issue pain x # of complaints

= Total level of pain


With the pain/sadness this issue causes multiplied by the number of complaints, are there any issues causing greater pain in the android community?  Anyone have a list of those that are currently higher?  

Out of curiosity, who decided leaving this out was more critical than inclusion?  I assume that must have been a really cool discussion, or a really silly mistake, because this is quite painful.

How could you not have typing Undo on what is essentially a computer?  This is the end of mankind as we know it!  Apple has the UNDO typing feature!!!!!

How long with this take to program?  Half-a-Day? A Week?

Apple has it:

http://www.imore.com/2011/05/17/daily-tip-undo-typing-deleting-cutting-pasting-iphone/

I found a way to undo!!!! I'm not sure if this will work for everyone but I found an app that has a keyboard to undo, it's called "A.I. type keyboard", I'm not sure if this download is available to everyone but I found it in the android market and I'm in Canada.

A.I. type keyboard is indeed nice, just not sure I can go back to hunt-and-peck after Swype...

It's not a defect, its a useless feature, if you can't retype something twice then there's something wrong with you. So what if its tedious? If its that important than jump on a computer

mynameis...@gmail.com, not sure if you are serius or not or just using some jedi mind tricks to make google look dumb for excluding the feature so long, but thanks for the laugh either way.

Well trust me when I say google probably agrees with me, and I'm also pretty damn sure that the feature would lie with the keyboard and not the os itself. That's why its so irrelevant, if you want it so bad then make your own keyboard capable of this.
If you want something do it yourself!

wow, so you were serious...I do think that undo is a little more complicated than one would think. However, the answer to someone who now owns a device costing as much as $600 is "you want that? Then make it yourself"?!? Sounds like a certain electronics company with a fruit logo :-)

mynameis...@gmail.com, are you worried someone will ask you to make this?

Trust everyone else, it's important.  The less-than-ideal selection methodology often replaces or cuts content that one didn't intend to select.  When the selection, or accidental backspace, is of something very large, or includes inline media or URLs, it's a big deal.  This might also mean it has to implemented above the keyboard level.

Undo functionality entered into most operating systems and applications before version 4.

I can see you're not the type to reflect, or perhaps edit, what you screed into your keyboard and thus are unlikely to need to revisit what you are composing, but for others, this would be useful.

I own a total of $2100 worth of android devices and I will never ever touch anything with a fruit logo :)
My point is, google isn't going to do it. They don't care, they have better things to do. So if someone wants it that bad it needs to be either done with a keyboard dev or someone creating a custom Rom

Obviously you're right that Google doesn't care. And the success of Android
despite of the Undo issue make them think it's ok. There isn't any media
coverage or pressure for this neither. But still it's a problem from a user
perspective that should be fixed, and it becomes more important with larger
devices (tablets) as people want to write on their mobile device instead of
the PC.
Am 12.03.2012 19:09 schrieb <android@googlecode.com>:

This isn't some obscure feature that can be easily added for .01% of users who want it.  This is a critical function that needs to be built into the very soul of the operating system to work, and will be used by 99% of users on a daily basis.  ESPECIALLY with an awkward touch-screen interface, it is very easy to accidentally delete a file, delete a block of text, or touch the screen wrong (and you're not sure if you accidentally just did something).  This is a function that has been an integral part of every operating system since about 1990.  mynameis, you're not being helpful - this is a critical update needed, they can forget about any other gimmick they want to integrate into their product until it works at a very basic level, which it does not without an undo macro built in.

I tweeted to @Android about this https://twitter.com/#!/dandv/status/179371123820081152. Not that I actually think they'll give a damn, unless we get like hundreds of retweets. In that case, I do have some media connections that could get us coverage.

I retweeted your tweet
let's all do that & maybe they will get the point that we are hundreds of
people who represent millions who want this feature

This is really needs some more attention.

Coming from an iPhone 4, I love my Galaxy Note.  However, few things have made the me more frustrated than realizing that there is no freaking undo when my text just got wiped out.

Just accidentally wiped out the work of 15 min careful typing with no undo to find. Using Gingerbread just a few days - to find out that one of the most basic feature does not even exist in an OS of this astounding richness of possibilities!

THANKS FOR ADDING THIS UNDO-FEATURE asap (better before asap ...)!!

Yes this is definitely a very important feature if you want to use a phone for writing long emails etc. I lost a very long email just now because I tried to copy it but accidentally hit a letter on the screen keyboard after selecting but before touching the selection to copy!

Please add "undo". First smartphone, quite frustrating I cannot undo.

Using Droid Charge. I seem to randomly stumble onto a typing mode with undo, but it's hard to reproduce, so I can only conclude that it's not really available when I need it. It's outrageous that such a fundamental text editor feature is not available on these supposedly modern advanced devices.

Text edit UNDO feature is a huge need in Android. Please listen to your customers. If you're so against it, then please just add something like "Google Labs" for gmail that lets advanced users enable things not everyone wants. I love that aspect of gmail. You could just do something like that for android since it isn't a App thing, it is a system-wide text entry thing that can't be easily fixed with a simple free app download. Even less likely to be fixed w/ an app since I use a physical keyboard on my Epic. Lots of people also use physical keyboards with tablets, so please fix (or add options to enable in a "Labs" mode") this at the kernel level.

Thanks for listening to us.

WHY would an undo feature not be included?! It is a gross understatement, really, to say that this SHOULD BE included for text actions. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE someone explain, with clarity, why Android does not provide this already -- forget that it "adds functionality" -- IT IS AN ESSENTIAL FUNCTION! A function as basic as copy/paste for someone who is writing!

Surely there is an undo on Android tablets?! Yes? No?! It seems not. Yikes! So what use is tablet for any sort of WORK?! If Android devices are meant to serve as toys, fair enough, forget an UNDO.

If Android is to be for work -- which presumes communicating (textually) -- then UNDO is vital, not an add-on, folks. VITAL.

This keeps me, by the way, from considering Android devices aside from my little, cost-effective LG phone via Virgin Mobile. I like it, but won't rely on it for anything, until there is UNDO. Also, this kills my considering a Chromebook, because it's showing that it is very much in the test stage. Android appeals to me, but backing off. Mac is reliable, even Windows, which I am always aggravated by at work, is at least not in some beta stage. I was unaward that Android is beta, but it will be until it gets and UNDO! What oversights will Chromebook have? Don't want to find out, now.

Getting a Macbook Pro instead. That's not gonna hurt Google any, but just saying. BIG HOLE in the operation sys without UNDO.

Google: "UNDO or UNDONE."

Not being able to undo/redo in simple text editing is a major flaw in android and should be giving topmost priority

I would have thought it would be a standard feature off the cuff. Please please please add "Undo"

I am new in the Android world - and discovered the lack of UNDO the hard way. Google search convinced me that there really is no way to get my text back :(. There was ctrl-z in my old good Windows Mobile 5...

Please bring the UNDO functionality.  This is ridiculous not to have.

You guys are going make me go back to using my iPhone 4 and iOS 6 if you don't add UNDO in the next random candy-named OS you come up with!

Seriously this is a huge problem for productivity on any platform.  IOS has it as does Windows phone...

It's ridiculous that android doesn't have undo!!!

Google please fix this. It is a simple but fatal defect. If it gets hyped well it can dissuade from android. Pleeeeeeeeeease fix it now.

Undo is such a basic function. Please add this asap!

[Comment deleted]

I just switched over from an iPhone to a Samsung Galaxy Note II. I'm really surprised that there isn't an undo function. Please implement at least a one level undo if worried about the stack.

Come on Google. Undo function is an essential OS feature.
 If you want market leadership, you don't want disgruntled users out here.
If stack is your problem, then at least give us an "Are you sure" screen,
If we inadvertently trigger a delete.

JB 4.1.2 STILL no Undo...
really???
(originally I had a much more eloquent & reasoned post, but I've accidentally deleted it, and... well... there's no undo!)

it is simple but effective to use undo. Why google ignores this.

Why no undo function!?

We need the undo feature.

NEED UNDO!!!

Undo/redo implementation for any TextView is 400 lines of code (including javadocs and comments). It's not a difficult problem. Add it to the SDK now.


Here is a sample implementation. Feel free to use it a an inspiration.

Here's to undo and redo appearing in Android in 2013!

Are you kidding me?

Undo is necessary!

Can't believe it's not here.

Absolutely necessary. CAN WE GET THIS GOING ALREADY?!

It's extremely frustrating to be composing an email on my Nexus 7 and then to mistakenly highlight and backspace on a whole paragraph thus losing an entire email. This has happened to me several times and in all honesty I never see the highlighting of the paragraph. All I know the typing is gone and there is now way to undo the deletion on Android. Please, dear please, give us "Ctrl" or some way to undo any type of keyboard input and/or text deletions on our Android devices. Without this extremely necessary and rudimental feature it really hinders productivity.

OKEY... its 4.2.1 now and still not freaking undo!!!
i mean my ipod 4 had it! and its a media player!!!
my defy didnt have it with cm10 and so does my htc one x with its sense rom...
no undo anywhere(jb photo delete and gmail undo dont count here!) we need a good undo such as the one of windows os where you can undo EVERYTHING! file transfers text edits tasks and so on...
ppl even wrote the implementation for google and they still dont use it...

This feature is a must have. We need to have it in the next update. I suggest to have it like the iPhone: shake and undo the typing.

Thanks.

This is not a Nice to have feature but definitely a Must have!

Can we please fix this one rapidly and quietly?
I cannot look any iPhone owner straight in the eye anywmore, when I tell them how I don't regret switching to Android ;)

Undo is no less essential on a smart phone than on a laptop or desktop computer. It's flatly absurd that there's still no undo on Android. Undo is about as important to me as copy and paste, and it's definitely more important than cut. I've cursed my Android phones more than once because an unintended delete of some important or lengthy text couldn't be undone. At this point - 30 years into personal computing, well over a decade into smart phones, and now more than 5 years into Android itself - what possible excuse can there be for the continued absence of something so fundamental?

This is an essential feature, too much time has been wasted, especially when accidentally deleting huge chunks of text from certain finicky apps like facebook.

I've Android 4.0.4 ICS installed on my Micromax A110 mobile. I miss the undo very much, sometimes accidently some large text might get deleted which required undoing.

Same happend with me I typed a big mail and then I was selecting whole message to copy it to other location and while selecting my finger moved above keypad and all message got replaced by 2-3 special characters, then there was not way to get it back, I had to retype the whole message again.

Please add undo feature ASAP and provide us patch for same.

[Comment deleted]

[Comment deleted]

[Comment deleted]

How can lacking Undo for 7 years become obsolete? :) - is Undo generally obsolete now and replaced by something better?

hear hear

Undo needs to be implemented.

Android already supports undo and redo.
You'll have to contact the keyboard developers to add undo/redo options.

How is this obsolete? We still need this!

I can't agree more, and it's just that easy and simple. Come on Google!!

It's not obsolete, it's already implemented several years back.
You can undo with Ctrl+Z, and redo with Ctrl+Y.

But to access these commands, you'll either need to have a physical keyboard, or a software keyboard with either Ctrl added, or with undo/redo buttons.

I feel it should have been part of the long press menu, next to copy / paste

I'm typing this on the default Google keyboard - on a Google Nexus phone, newest Android version fully updated. No undo. This can't be right.

Yep - exactly. You can get this feature on some keyboards, and of course, with a mechanical keyboard. Just not on the official google keyboard. Irony much.

I am hereby contacting the developer of the built in keyboard, please add undo!

By replying to this email chain, you're spamming all 880 users that have
starred this issue. Unless you have something constructive to add, please
stop replying. (Yes, I see the irony in sending this email...)

On Wed, Apr 19, 2017 at 6:13 PM, <buganizer-system@google.com> wrote:

google nexus here with android 7.1.2 no undo on default google keyboard!!!

good, 880 folks can now question closing unfixed issue :-)

I want this feature too, but it seems to me that this is the wrong place to
ask for it. Android supports undo/redo, it seems you guys just want it
implemented for the keyboard(s) you use, so you should email the developer
of that app, even if it is the Google Keyboard team. It would be great if
Google implemented system wide undo/redo via some on screen option, but
that does not make much sense from a usability standpoint. You can probably
get this feature with a custom rom or other mod if you really want it.

On Wed, Apr 19, 2017 at 8:35 PM <buganizer-system@google.com> wrote:

Stop send me this crap.

On Apr 20, 2017 10:29 AM, <buganizer-system@google.com> wrote:

We don't want Undo keys on our keyboards any more than we want Cut or Paste keys; we don't even need a Ctrl key. Cut/Copy/Paste are done through the text field's long-press menu, and Undo/Redo should be as well.

Ironically perhaps, basic Undo/Redo (with menu items) was actually implemented shortly before this issue was closed - but apparently it had a possible crash so it was immediately reverted rather than fixed: https://github.com/android/platform_frameworks_base/commit/f59152cf00520d1bd36949b44faca2e1fcf6d28f

Oh, and if the emails are bugging you, just unstar the page. Seems there's little point keeping track of this now.

Had to switch to iOS to get this unfortunately, where you shake the phone
to undo. I believe Samsung implemented this on some of their phones as
well.

The fact that android adamantly refuses to do this makes me wonder if it
isn't some sort of patent issue that they don't want to deal with.

On Wed, Apr 19, 2017 at 7:42 PM <buganizer-system@google.com> wrote:

Stop send me this crap.

On Apr 20, 2017 1:42 PM, <buganizer-system@google.com> wrote:

Needs to be in long press menu. Ridiculous it's not standard.

Aye

On 20 Apr 2017 06:25, <buganizer-system@google.com> wrote:

It's not the "keyboard" that needs undo, it's the text field itself, what many gui toolkits would call the "widget".

All system "widgets" (or whatever the gui text field is) for editable text should have an ability to do this.  It should be opt out not opt in. (Undoable by default without the developer putting any work in).  It should just be part of the

In most widget systems, as a developer of apps, you get this for free.  Android is one of the only systems I've ever used that doesn't offer this in the long press menu by default.  I've written code for a ton of other platforms, they pretty much all offer undo for free in all text fields.  It's part of the os or more specifically, the gui toolkit.

This shouldn't be the keyboard's responsibility, but the textField itself's.  Text fields, by default, should have feature in their long press menu.

I can't believe it's 2017 and this still isn't fixed.  Has been the single most pressing issue/problem on Android for many years now.

I hope whoever restarted this stupid comment spam realizes that in the last few hours, almost 100 people have unstarred this bug because of them. Actually, make that 101.

Seems like enough people want this, how do we get google to listen?

>> I hope whoever restarted this stupid comment spam realizes
>> that in the last few hours, almost 100 people have unstarred
>> this bug because of them.

In order to prevent "spam",  if google has official decided to never implement this, (even if for some reason we will never comprehend)  this thread itself should be locked so that no one but ranking developers can post in it or reply.  Then no one will get any more "spam" msgs about this.

If people don't want to see discussion about this, then unstarring the thread really is the right thing for them to do.

I would like to double star this thread and add another star for every year
undo/redo is not implemented in the long press button menu. For more than 8
years you can just shake any osx device for a redo/undo and still there is
no proper solution for Android. I guess android users has just no use in
undo/redo - they never make mistakes.

On Thu, Apr 20, 2017 at 7:27 AM, <buganizer-system@google.com> wrote:

Can you people please contact the Google Keyboard team about this instead? This isn't about the Android system itself.

uhm YES it is about the android and NOT the keyboard. It should be
implemented in the long press button menu - please android !


On Thu, Apr 20, 2017 at 9:45 AM, <buganizer-system@google.com> wrote:

The long press menu is about selected text, which has nothing to do with undo/redo. Instead of trying to bodge the functions into a menu where they don't belong, how about putting them somewhere where it make sense?

...perhaps on the keyboard?

The next update to the Gboard will feature a menu for cursor movement, copy/paste, and undo/redo would fit nicely into that menu. If Gboard adds these functions, then other keyboard developers will follow suit.

The function itself has to be build into the OS for the keyboard to activate it.

Think about it: You can use CTRL+Z on your keyboard to undo in Windows, but if you connect the same keyboard to an Android device, it doesn't work.

It is built into the OS already, it does work pressing Ctrl + Z, I have done that. It works in Google Chrome, Inbox, Play Store ... but it does not work in Facebook.

I would agree on making it more consistent and the default behaviour. But this topic is about "there's no way of undoing" which is false. A keyboard can have the undo feature on the keyboard and it'll work in Google apps.

What we need is a new topic about making undo a default feature. ...and we need Gboard to add an undo button.

>> The long press menu is about selected text

No, that really shouldn't be the case.

The long press is the "context menu" equivalent.  Long press works on many things and is context sensitive.

When I long press inside a text widget, I should get menu options that pertain to that text widget.  Where undo clearly belongs.

The reasons selection stuff is in there is because selecting text is something you want to do in the context of a text widget. (Alternatively, you could consider the context "the cursor" in this case.

Furthermore, if text is selected, and you long press on it, your context is that text and not necessarily the entire widget.  Basically from a conceptual point of view text selection makes the context "the selected text" rather than the textfield itself.

Seriously, right here as I type this email, I can RMB click in the text field, and I see "undo" listed in the context menu.  I can do that in a plethora of operating systems/gui toolkits/ applications.  As a developer, I get that functionality *for free* in virtually all text widgets.

RMB click's existence as a de facto cross platform context menu example basically proves that it isn't keyboard related.  Long press is just Android version of the context menu.  This principle is generally well established and works all across Android in general, it's just missing here.

I can't believe there are people who don't seem to understand this basic concept of widgets having functionality built in related to how people will want to use them.

It's like having a spinner for a number entry field.  A numerical entry field might have a default value, and in the long press on the spinner you could include a reset option. (Typically that's in the RMB context menu in existing desktop apps.)

It's a general case rule that widgets can be expected to have long press functionality.

This is not a "keyboard" thing.  Keyboard are for entering characters.  Undo shouldn't be some kind of keyboard macro, it should be built into each text widget, and each text widget should indpendently remember it's history.  Undo in the keyboard would be a giant hack, ignoring where the functionality should be.

Personally, I'd actually be happy enough if undo was implemented in the keyboard, since at least for me, the problem would be solved from my (users) perspective.  That would be terrible gui toolkit engineering though.  A gui toolkit should have text widgets with undo built in.   Win, qt, gtk, ios, apps all feature this.  I'm as a developer, I should just declare a text field, and that text field should get "undo" ability without me having to do any work as a developer, and without having to rely on the user using a particular keyboard.  It should work with any keyboard.

If it's just too much work to implement, fine, but the best answer is clear and obvious.  The correct design is clearly undo in context menu (on long press) for text fields. However, maybe this is just one of those situations where for technical reasons we have to live with an implementation that doesn't live up to design potential.

> I would agree on making it more consistent and the default behaviour.
>  But this topic is about "there's no way of undoing" which is false

Perhaps the text fields do have undo built in and it just isn't exposed by default?

In that case the text fields work well already, and it's just making sure that a menu exists somewhere for accessing them.  Ideally that menu would exist by default in all declared text fields.

>>>> The long press menu is about selected text
>>No, that really shouldn't be the case.
Yes, that is exactly the case.

You have:
• cut out selected text
• copy selected text
• paste and replace selected text
• make all text the selected text
• share selected text
• web search with selected text
• translate selected text

Undo/redo won't fit this.
• undo selected text???

>>Keyboard are for entering characters.
Gboard will have cut and copy features, and moving the cursor.
It currently have web search.

>> long press [...] (Typically that's in the RMB context menu in existing desktop apps.)
No, in Android, long press is solely for selection. You have the context options at the top. This is part of the Android design document.

>> right here as I type this email, I can RMB click in the text field, and I see "undo" listed in the context menu.
I don't know what client you are using, but you might find "settings", "inspect element", other extension options. A lot of things that has nothing to do with the selected text. But that doesn't mean Android should do the same thing.