DeskPad – Virtual Keyboard and Mouse for Android Desktop Mode

Use your phone as a trackpad and keyboard for an external monitor.

When you connect your Pixel to a monitor over USB-C and switch it to Desktop mode , you get a real desktop — but no built-in way to point and click without carrying a mouse and keyboard. DeskPad turns the phone's own screen into a trackpad (with a cursor drawn on the monitor) and an on-screen keyboard that types into whatever field you click on the desktop.

No mouse, no dongle, no PC, no developer setup. You enable it once and it just works.

Status: tested and working on a Pixel 9 Pro Fold — trackpad, cursor, drag, two-finger scroll, keyboard typing, Enter-to-send, and lock/unlock are all confirmed on real hardware.

Left: connected (“Ready · display 3”) with the Gboard-style keyboard. Right: locked — no input reaches the desktop until you hold to unlock.

An Android phone that supports Desktop mode on an external display (e.g. Pixel 9 Pro Fold on current Android; requires Android 11 / API 30 or newer). A USB-C DisplayPort cable and a monitor (or a USB-C hub with HDMI). The DeskPad app ( DeskPad-release.apk ). That's it. You do not need adb, a rooted phone, Shizuku, or a computer.

Copy DeskPad-release.apk to your phone and tap it to install. (You may need to allow "Install unknown apps" for your file manager the first time.) Open DeskPad . One-time setup (about 20 seconds) DeskPad needs one permission: an Accessibility service. This is what lets it move a cursor and tap on the external display.

You only do this once. The permission survives reboots — you never have to set it up again.

There is no keyboard to enable — DeskPad types through the same accessibility permission, so once the service is on, both the trackpad and keyboard work.

Connect your phone to the monitor over USB-C and choose Desktop when prompted. Open DeskPad. The top bar should read "Ready · display …" . The whole phone screen is now your trackpad. A cursor appears on the monitor. Trackpad gestures Gesture on the phone What happens on the desktop Slide one finger Move the cursor Tap Left click Two-finger tap Right click Two-finger slide Scroll Tap, then press again and slide Grab and drag (move a window, select text, drag a file) The drag follows your finger live — press, then keep sliding, and lift to drop.

Tap the ⌨ keyboard icon in the top bar to show the keyboard. Click the text field you want on the desktop first (with the trackpad) — that's where your typing goes. Type. The layout is the familiar Gboard-style keyboard: Letters, with Shift and a ?123 symbols page (and a further =< page). Backspace , Space , and Enter . A Copy / Paste / Cut / All row for quick editing. Each key gives a little pop-up preview and a haptic tap as you press it. Enter actually sends. In a chat box it presses Send; in a browser address bar or a search box it submits (Go / Search) — just like a real keyboard's Enter.

Tap the 🔓 padlock in the top bar to lock . It changes to 🔒 , and a "Touchpad locked" overlay appears — no taps, drags, scrolls, or keystrokes reach the desktop. This is handy when you set the phone down. To unlock, press and hold the "Hold to unlock" button.

Top bar says "connect a display (Desktop mode)" — make sure the monitor is plugged in and you chose Desktop (not screen mirroring). When it's working the bar shows "Ready · display …". Typing doesn't appear — click the desktop text field with the trackpad first , then type. DeskPad types into the field you last clicked. The status dot is orange / "Tap here to enable" — the accessibility service was turned off (some battery optimizers do this). Tap the status bar and turn DeskPad back on. Cursor feels too fast or too slow / scroll too coarse — these are tunable; see the developer notes below. Is it safe? (privacy & permissions) DeskPad is deliberately minimal:

Project layout: a framework-free core/ package (pure Kotlin gesture/pipeline/cursor logic, covered by 33 JUnit unit tests ) with a thin Android layer on top — an AccessibilityService that dispatches gestures and draws the cursor, and an Activity hosting the trackpad + on-screen keyboard. No third-party runtime dependencies.

export ANDROID_HOME=/path/to/android-sdk ./gradlew :app:testDebugUnitTest # run the core unit tests ./gradlew :app:assembleDebug # -> app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk ./gradlew :app:assembleRelease # signed release (needs keystore.properties, see below) Signing: release signing is loaded from a keystore.properties file at the repo root, which is gitignored and not part of this repository. Copy keystore.properties.example to keystore.properties and fill in your keystore path and passwords to produce signed release builds. Without it, debug builds and an unsigned release still build fine.

Tuning: cursor sensitivity, scroll step, and drag/tap timings are constants in CursorController and AccessibilityInputSink — adjust to taste.

Design: see ARCHITECTURE.md for how it all fits together — the pure core/ pipeline, the accessibility techniques (coordinate-based typing, send-on-Enter, live drag), and the threading model.

Released under the MIT License — free to use, modify, and distribute.

DeskPad is a self-authored app (version 0.2). minSdk 30 · compileSdk 35 · Kotlin.