How to programmatically get current keyboard language on an Android device

Question

I am writing an application which is using dictionaries. I want to switch between dictionaries any time user change input language. For example if the typing language is english work with english dictionary, if it is german, work with german dictionary. Is there any way to set a listener to get that change? All the answer i found were about locale and not about input language. I don't want to handle locale, locale has no effect in application, the input language does. (I am developing in minSDK=7)

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14775218/how-can-i-know-keyboard-language-en-fr — Adil Malik, May 10 '13 at 14:00
thanks for the response, but this solution is for API 11 and above, i am using API 7. That's my problem. — Christos Asa, May 10 '13 at 14:07

score 15 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 11 '13 at 06:34

15

InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager)getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);

InputMethodSubtype ims = imm.getCurrentInputMethodSubtype();

String locale = ims.getLocale();

You can try this code to get Current Keyboard Language regional code.

edited Sep 11 '13 at 06:34

Baby Groot

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answered Sep 11 '13 at 06:13

Ramkailash

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doesn't work on samsung s5 API 23... reports en_US regardless of keyboard language selected. Seems like it's querying system settings and not the actual keyboard config at runtime. – Nerdy Bunz Jun 11 '18 at 07:08
1

return empty string – Alexei Oct 07 '19 at 15:56
yeah, same thing as @nerdy-bunz said: this is just the system language. How do you see which keyboard layout is selected? the app randomly will assign a layout when you plug it and I need to know it it's en_US or my language – Alberto M Sep 03 '21 at 13:42
Google keyboard, Kika keyboard from Xiami does not return language code.. what to do about that? any solution? – axita.savani Mar 02 '22 at 12:40

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 20 '15 at 14:21

2

It is possible

imm.getCurrentInputMethodSubtype();

to return you null value. In this case you should check language of android system like this

Locale.getDefault().getLanguage()        ---> en

otherwise you will receive NullPointerException

answered Jan 20 '15 at 14:21

Stoycho Andreev

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 05 '23 at 03:48

private fun printInputLanguages() {
    val imm = context?.getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE) as InputMethodManager?
    val ims = imm?.enabledInputMethodList
    if (ims != null) {
        for (method in ims) {
            val submethods = imm.getEnabledInputMethodSubtypeList(method, true)
            for (submethod in submethods) {
                if (submethod.mode == "keyboard") {
                    val currentLocale = submethod.locale
                    Timber.e("Available input method locale: $currentLocale")
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

How to programmatically get current keyboard language on an Android device

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