Making the bluetooth keyboard work in Messenger with Samsung Note 9

I mentioned before in the previous post that I have started using a bluetooth keyboard to use with my Note 9.  I also mentioned that this particular keyboard I'm using, a Logitech K480, seemed to be working for SMS messaging, Facebook posts, Viber and so on but not quite for FB Messenger.  I don't know how it would react with the other Messenger-like apps and I had no inclination to try out the others.  I thought there must be a way to make it work. 

The problem is when you try to type something in Messenger, you normally would touch the text box and it would open up the text box and the digital keypad and type your stuff in and press the paper airplane symbol to send up your entry.  Now for some reason when you do this in conjunction with your bluetooth keyboard, it accepts only one character and closes the text box and you would have to repeat the same process again.  So it would be okay to do that if you were only typing something like OK or NO, something short.  If you were going to type in an entire phrase or sentence, this would be time-consuming and annoying.

I have scoured the internet for possible solutions.  There were suggestions of clearing your data and cache for the Messenger app or uninstalling and reinstalling your app or contacting the Messenger developers or trying another Messenger-like app.  None of this appealed to me and I didn't try any of them.

What I did was just to play around with the app, using my keyboard & my phone which uses Android version 9.  I tried different function and control keys perfunctorily which took me to different undesired places.

But there was one thing that worked.  I pressed longer on the initial text box, not the one that pops up when you touch it, but the one before it.  So if you already had other previous messages to/from the other person/group, you would still be seeing those messages and the text box below.  I pressed longer on that text box until a symbol like a blue TEARDROP appeared.  When that happened I could then type normally as I would be in FB or SMS or any other text-entry app.  But I had to wait for the TEARDROP.  Mind you this is in Android 9.  I don't know if that is the same reaction for other Android versions but I would guess it would be similar.

So there... a simple solution born out of a little bit of patience.

Using a bluetooth keyboard for my smartphone

I seriously want to challenge my new Samsung Note 9 to be my writing machine on the run.  I had lost my Note 10 sometime back.  That one had a special keyboard I could use specially for writing.  But the Note 10 after a big drop decided to die.  Well not straight away.  The display went berserk and I couldn't even guess what was being displayed nor could I respond in any way. 

I had the option of perhaps buying a refurbished Note 10 which would cost me around $300.  For the same price I could also buy a small netPC which will be used for the main purpose of writing on the run.  So two options were there.  But there was another one since I bought the Note 9.  And that was to buy a bluetooth keyboard to connect to the Note 9.  So I bought one for $59 from JB Hifi.  The ticket price was $69 but I was charged $59 only.  Maybe there was a discount for the item that day.  I didn't even dare ask as the cheaper price was to my advantage.

I tried to connect to the keyboard.  I had problems initially with connecting but eventually after scanning devices from the Bluetooth settings, I was given the chance to connect by entering a series of numbers on the keyboard and voila I was connected.

I proceeded to test my comms apps.  Facebook worked.  I was able to post a longish entry in a FB page.   I was able to respond to comments etc.  Viber worked.  No problem there - quite straightforward.  Just click on the text box and type on the keyboard.  Messenger however failed dismally.  It seemed to accept one letter in the text box and then it closes the text box.  I could then not really type in the text box without repeating the process of opening the text box, entering one letter, then opening the text box again and entering the next letter and so on.  So no good.  I still have to figure out how to make this work.

My next step will be to find the best app I can use for writing.  Research is still under way.