The latest update of My-T-Soft for Android is now available. Because of deprecated API calls used by the existing code, a break was made in updating My-T-Soft to run on Android 9 (API 28). Also, to address customer needs, a new undocked (or floating) keyboard option has been added.

Some background - for those who are not developers, the API (or Application Programming Interface) is the set of code that allows programs to interact with the underlying operating system. When code is deprecated, it means it is being removed or replaced - it may still be supported, or it may be phased out over time. So when facing this, code must be refactored to move forward with the API. So due to changes in the Android API, the operation of My-T-Soft changed when running in Android 9. In earlier versions of Android, a custom board that stretched from top to bottom could still operate with applications and not obscure the application. Due to code that was deprecated and no longer available, when My-T-Soft ran on Android 9, the area reserved for the Input Method (IME) stretched to the top of the screen, and effectively pushed the application view away (resulting in non-functional situation). To resolve this within the API 28 (Android 9) environment, a new feature, the undocked (or floating) keyboard was added. This provided a completely different approach to the screen, and allowed the My-T-Soft keyboard to be positioned anywhere, and not change the underlying application's view. Because of the infinite possibilities using Build-A-Board and the flexibility needed to create the optimal user interface, this feature/capability that worked in previous version of Android needed to be carried forward, and the best way to handle this was with this new, optional feature.

For those not yet familiar with My-T-Soft for Android, key features include the ability to customize layouts with IMG's Build-A-Board, tie layouts together into sets, position layouts anywhere on the screen, and customize key actions with keystroke macros and internal commands (Launch Apps, Open New Keyboard File, etc.). The software installs as another input method, and can be swapped in & out with other methods. My-T-Soft for Android can tie into accounts at Build-A-Board.com, so favorite boards can be quickly brought onto any device, and provides access to the ever growing online database of onscreen keyboard layouts. Because layouts are customizable, key sizes are flexible, and both text and images can be used on keys, the possibilities for optimizing the user input interface are endless.