Feat: Add Option to Delete Whole Words When Holding Backspace#2329
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defleur-agents wants to merge 1 commit intoHeliBorg:mainfrom
Open
Feat: Add Option to Delete Whole Words When Holding Backspace#2329defleur-agents wants to merge 1 commit intoHeliBorg:mainfrom
defleur-agents wants to merge 1 commit intoHeliBorg:mainfrom
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Adds a new setting 'Hold backspace deletes whole words' under Text correction (off by default). When enabled: - Holding backspace deletes entire words instead of individual characters - Uses BreakIterator.getWordInstance() for accurate word boundary detection - Gradually increasing repeat speed with haptic feedback on each deletion - Composing words are deleted whole on first repeat - Works in both standard and TYPE_NULL input fields Default behavior is unchanged for users who don't enable the setting.
eranl
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Feb 27, 2026
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eranl
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How does this deal with punctuation and other non-word characters?
| if (textBeforeCursor != null && textBeforeCursor.length() > 0) { | ||
| final java.text.BreakIterator breakIterator; | ||
| if (deleteWholeWords) { | ||
| breakIterator = java.text.BreakIterator.getWordInstance(); |
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This uses the default locale. It also uses some built-in word-breaking logic, which differs between Android versions. And it ignores HeliBoard's word separators.
| if (autocorrectEnabled) Settings.PREF_AUTOCORRECT_SHORTCUTS else null, | ||
| if (autocorrectEnabled) Settings.PREF_AUTO_CORRECT_THRESHOLD else null, | ||
| if (autocorrectEnabled) Settings.PREF_BACKSPACE_REVERTS_AUTOCORRECT else null, | ||
| Settings.PREF_DELETE_WHOLE_WORDS, |
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I think this setting belongs on the Preferences or Advanced screens.
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Adds a "Hold backspace deletes whole words" toggle in Text Correction settings (off by default). When enabled, holding the backspace key deletes entire words instead of individual characters.
Related: #1289 — this addresses the hold-backspace behavior discussed in that thread. The swipe-delete behavior requested in the original issue is not changed by this PR.
Implementation
BreakIterator.getWordInstance()for accurate word boundary detectionFiles Changed
InputLogic.java— word deletion logic for both composing and committed textPointerTracker.java— adjusted repeat timing when deleting wordsLatinIME.java— haptic feedback on every backspace repeat when enabledSettings.java/Defaults.kt/SettingsValues.java— new preferenceTextCorrectionScreen.kt— settings UIstrings.xml— setting label and description