Typing in an Android Emulator on Mac: Wrong Characters, Keyboard Layouts and Copy-Paste

You click in a text field in the game, type a word, and other characters come out: “azerty” turns into “qwerty”, a z into a y. Your Mac is fine: in an Android emulator, text input does not necessarily follow your keyboard layout. On a US keyboard nothing shifts, but two other traps remain. Here is what happens in MACOS EMULATOR, what is not affected, and the simplest way to enter text: paste it.

Why the emulator types the wrong characters

The emulator’s Android device has only one keyboard, a US one. When you type in a text field from the game window, each key is sent by its position, not by the character printed on it, and Android reads it as if it came from a US QWERTY keyboard.

What comes out depends on your layout:

• US QWERTY: what you type is what you get.
• UK or another non-US QWERTY layout: some symbols come out differently.
• French or Belgian AZERTY: A and Q swap, Z and W swap, the top row gives numbers without Shift, and punctuation moves.
• QWERTZ (Germany, Austria, Switzerland): Z and Y swap, the ä, ö, ü and ß keys type punctuation marks, and other symbols move.

Most letters stay in place, which makes the shift all the more confusing: a word looks almost right, and a password fails without you seeing why.

What is not affected

Only free text input is concerned: the username and password a game asks for when it opens, a search bar, a chat window. Everything else follows your keyboard.

• Your game keys. A key bound to a button does not send a letter: it sends a touch where you placed the marker. The launcher reads it on your Mac’s actual layout: on AZERTY, an “A” marker answers your A key, and you can even bind é on AZERTY or ö on QWERTZ. Switch layouts from the menu bar mid-match, and your keys follow.
• Pasting. It does not go through key positions: the safest move, detailed below.
• Signing in to your Google account. In Full mode, the app installs the game from Google Play, with your own Google account, and you sign in to it once, inside the launcher window. There, your keyboard types the letters printed on its keys, whatever your layout.

1. Paste your text with Cmd + V

Pasting works right away, whatever your keyboard:

1. 1Copy your text on the Mac with Cmd + C: a password from your password manager, a code or a short message from any app.
2. 2In the game window, click the field it should go into.
3. 3Press Cmd + V. Ctrl + V works too, if you are used to Windows.

The launcher then puts the clipboard text into the Android field. Two details:

• Copy without a line break. A copied line break becomes the Enter key, which can submit the form before you are done.
• If nothing pastes, the Accessibility permission is missing: in System Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Accessibility, turn the app on. If it is already on, turn it off and back on. The guide to Android emulator security on Mac explains what else it is for.

2. On AZERTY or QWERTZ: type as if on US QWERTY

For a short word, you can also type with the US layout in mind: on AZERTY, your Q key for an a, your W key for a z, numbers without Shift; on QWERTZ, your Y key for a z and your Z key for a y. Beyond a few characters it gets tedious, and for a password, which you cannot see as it is typed, it is a trap: paste it instead.

3. Passwords and bound keys: turn your keys off

Another trap, which catches US keyboards too: a letter in your password bound to a game button. When a text field is open in Android, the launcher detects it and lets your letters through instead of pressing buttons. Click in the field before you type: that click is what makes it check whether a field is waiting for text.

If a letter still presses a button, turn your keys off while you sign in: the keyboard button in the toolbar turns them on or off, without leaving the match. Turn them back on afterwards. The keyboard and mouse guide explains how to place them.

Space and Tab in the game window

The launcher keeps two keys for itself. Tab never reaches the game, and the space bar only reaches it inside a text field. If a space does not appear, click in the field again. Cmd + Tab always goes through: it switches apps as usual.

Do not change your macOS keyboard layout

Switching your Mac to a US layout fixes nothing: the key is sent by its position, whatever layout macOS uses. Worse, your game keys would follow the new layout: on an AZERTY keyboard, an “A” marker would then answer your Q key. Keep your own layout and paste your text.

No need to send support a performance report for this: it says nothing about the keyboard. If you write to them, just say where it gets in your way most: signing in, searching or chatting.

Frequently asked questions