SideKeys

SideKeys lets you decide what your phone's hardware keys do.

E-Ink phones usually have one or two extra side keys, but their firmware only offers a fixed list of actions — and typically cannot launch apps at all. SideKeys fills that gap: assign any action you like to each key, separately for single press, double press and long press. Volume keys work too.

WHAT A KEY CAN DO

• Launch any installed app, or jump straight to a specific screen inside it

• Start Google Assistant, open Google Wallet

• Home, Back, Recent apps, notifications, quick settings, power menu, lock screen

• Take a screenshot

• Scroll up and down in any app — with the scroll distance adjustable from 10% to 90% of the screen, because how much text that covers depends on your font size

• Flashlight, media controls, volume up/down/mute, Do Not Disturb

• Toggle Battery Saver. Some E-Ink firmwares ship a quick settings panel that ignores tiles from apps entirely; a key press reaches it either way

• Custom intents for power users

BUILT FOR E-INK

Pure black and white, no animations, nothing that smears the screen. Keys are captured at runtime — just press the button you want to assign, and SideKeys recognises it. Built-in debounce filters the ghost presses that bouncy side keys produce.

MORE

• Per-app profiles: different actions while a chosen app is in the foreground, falling back to your global mapping for anything you leave empty

• Charge alarm: a sound, vibration and notification at a level you pick, so you can unplug in time

PRIVACY

SideKeys has no internet permission, so it is technically incapable of sending anything anywhere. It does not read screen content — the accessibility service does not even request that capability. Your key mappings stay on the device and are deleted when you uninstall. No account, no analytics, no ads. Open source under the MIT licence.

SETUP

SideKeys needs the accessibility permission. That is the only way an Android app can receive hardware key presses while it is not the app on screen, and the app explains this up front and asks for your agreement before anything is enabled. Setup is three guided steps.