Typewriter is a text editor that opens in landscape and stays there, for writing on the Kompakt with a Bluetooth keyboard.
The landscape is declared in the app’s own manifest, so nothing runs behind it to hold the screen round — no overlay, no foreground service, no permanent notification. It can also be turned the other way up, for a keyboard case that wants it so.
Your writing is ordinary .txt files in a folder you pick through the system’s own picker. No storage permission is asked for, any other app can open the files, and they stay put if you uninstall this. The folder can be one a sync app owns: if a newer copy arrives while a sheet is open, nothing is written over it — what you typed goes into a file beside it, and you keep both.
Ctrl-S, Ctrl-N, Ctrl-O, Ctrl-Z and Escape; everything else your keyboard does is the platform’s own text field.
Saves two seconds after you stop typing, and on the way out.
A word count, and three text sizes — for every sheet, or one sheet at a time.
It asks for no permissions and has no network access at all.
It came out of the writerdeck thread, and the people there found its first bugs within days. What I still do not know is how it holds up over a long session — a whole afternoon of writing in it. If you do that, I would like to hear what broke.
I really like this app. It’s simple with now distractions. The only drawback for me is that I can’t get it to handle the Nordic letters on my keyboard.
Review for version 0.1.4
Author’s rating: ★★★★★ · Author of this review
@Lavurso Thank you. The Kompakt treats every Bluetooth keyboard as a US one, but it does have the Nordic layouts. They’re just hidden. Version 0.1.5 adds Settings → Keyboard layout: with the keyboard connected, tap its name and choose your layout.
Review for version 0.1.15
Author’s rating: ★★★★★ · Author of this review
@TechVampire it does now. 0.1.15 has a “New sheets saved as” setting: Plain text or Markdown. Pick Markdown and new sheets save as .md, so Notes and Obsidian pick them up. Typewriter already opened .md files, so old ones work too.
Hmm I updated and changed my settings to markdown but for some reason Obsidian isn’t seeing them. Typewriter can open notes that were already in Obsidian but edits made to those notes don’t show up in Obsidian either.
Review for version 0.1.15
Author’s rating: ★★★★★ · Author of this review
@TechVampire I set this up on a test Kompakt with Obsidian 1.14.4: a vault in Documents, Typewriter pointed at that folder, Markdown on. New sheets and edits to Obsidian’s own notes both showed up in Obsidian, in the background and after a restart, so I can’t make it happen here yet.
Could you check two things? In Files, does the vault folder have the new .md sheet with your text in it? And does Obsidian show it after you close it fully, or after restarting the phone? If the file is right on disk and only a restart makes Obsidian notice, that’s Obsidian’s file cache on Android, and I’ll report it to them.
I made an icon that matches the Mudita icon style format. I am a designer and love doing this stuff. Feel free to use it if you want. And thanks wander for carrying this phone on your back.
Review for version 0.1.17
Author’s rating: ★★★★★ · Author of this review
@claytonevandavis it’s in: Typewriter 0.1.17 has your typewriter as its icon, set inside the Kompakt’s rounded frame like the phone’s own apps. At that size your lines come out exactly as thick as theirs. You’re credited in the README. Thank you again!
