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I want to use some my Android device while walking. It is too dangerous to walk while looking at the screen, so I have modified the software I use so that it speaks and beeps so I know what is happening without looking at the screen.

It is still troublesome and dangerous to hold the device and use the touchscreen while walking. I'd rather place the phone in my backpack and hold some very simple controller in my hand.

  • Wires or wireless are both okay.
  • I don't need many buttons. Just 2-4 buttons is enough.

Is there any controller device which can plug into an Android device so that I can hold just the small controller while walking?

Village
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2 Answers2

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It sounds like what you want is a presentation clicker. This is a small device used by speakers to control slides during their talk. Usually it uses Bluetooth HID profile, and is visible to the host device as a keyboard or mouse. Alternatively, you might already have a Bluetooth game controller (such as a Playstation controller). Android has support for these built-in.

There are also wired USB presentation clickers, and USB game controllers. If your device supports USB-on-the-go, you can use one of these.

Dan Hulme
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Another option not involving too many buttons would be "voice control". For this, I can recommend you a combination of and the AutoVoice addon on the software side, and a common Bluetooth headset on the hardware side.

Using the Bluetooth headsets button, you can activate AutoVoice, then speak your command, and Tasker would execute it. Due to the versatility of Tasker, this gives you almost unlimited possibilities to control your device (and everything connected to it) – if you miss one specific feature, chances are very high there's another Tasker addon adding exactly that.

I'm a long-time Tasker user, and cannot imagine doing without it anymore. I also tried AutoVoice, and must say it works great. You can even use "casual phrasing" and have it "matching for wildcards" – so it e.g. wouldn't matter whether you say "TV on", or "turn the TV on", or even "turn the TV screen on"; setup correctly, AutoVoice would check for "TV..on", and act accordingly. (Sorry for the strange example, but that's about what I did, integrating it with my home equipment ;)

One possible "handicap" here: As AutoVoice relies on Google Voice, it would need a network connection to work. But the big plus: nothing to carry in your hands :)

Izzy
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