Hacker's Keyboard
Shares rank 11 of 12 keyboard apps by recommenders
Free Android keyboard people use for Emacs and terminal work in Termux, with easy access to F12 and cursor keys.
Free Android keyboard people use for Emacs and terminal work in Termux, with easy access to F12 and cursor keys.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 86%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Used for Emacs and Termux
“along with an also modified hackerkeyboard to support my workflow which is heavy on emacs and GNU Screen.”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “Termux” “I primarily use Hacker's keyboard to use Emacs in Termux.”
Comment from 26 Nov 2025 in “Surprisingly, Emacs on Android is pretty good” Easy access to cursor and function keys
“My solution is to install a soft keyboard (e.g., Hacker's Keyboard) or use a bluetooth keyboard which permit content selection using cursor keys or shift + modifier.”
Comment from 11 Aug 2026 in “Ask HN: In your experience, what are sound conventions for e-ink UI development?” “F12 is easily accessible in Hacker's Keyboard.”
Comment from 26 Nov 2025 in “Surprisingly, Emacs on Android is pretty good”
Other keyboard apps people recommend
The four most recommended other keyboard apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gboard | 59 | 43 | 58% | 10 | — | — |
| FUTO Keyboard | 51 | 22 | 70% | 12 | 1 yr4 owners | Approved |
| FUTO Swipe | 40 | 18 | 69% | 1 | — | — |
| iOS keyboard | 28 | 182 | 13% | 8 | 10 yrs9 owners | — |
| Hacker's KeyboardThis page | 6 | 1 | 86% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
6 of the 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“My solution is to install a soft keyboard (e.g., Hacker's Keyboard) or use a bluetooth keyboard which permit content selection using cursor keys or shift + modifier.”
“it still works just fine on the latest versions”
“along with an also modified hackerkeyboard to support my workflow which is heavy on emacs and GNU Screen.”
“Even switching to the Hacker's Keyboard and tweaking some settings still has me smacking the "tab" key or whatever when hitting space.”
“I primarily use Hacker's keyboard to use Emacs in Termux.”
“F12 is easily accessible in Hacker's Keyboard.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.