How to detect if users stop typing in EditText android

Question

I have an EditText field in my layout. I want to perform an action when the user stops typing in that edittext field. I have implemented TextWatcher and use its functions

@Override
public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int count, int after) { }


@Override
public void onTextChanged(CharSequence text, int start, int lengthBefore, int lengthAfter) { } 

@Override
    public void afterTextChanged(Editable editable) {

    }

The function onTextChanged and afterTextChanged get called just after typing any character, but I want to perform action after the user has finished typing in that edittext field, just like facebook does on it's "Check In" page.

How can I implement this?

Answer 1

This is how I did and works for me!

long delay = 1000; // 1 seconds after user stops typing
long last_text_edit = 0;
Handler handler = new Handler();

private Runnable input_finish_checker = new Runnable() {
    public void run() {
        if (System.currentTimeMillis() > (last_text_edit + delay - 500)) {
            // TODO: do what you need here
            // ............
            // ............
            DoStuff();
        }
    }
};

EditText editText = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.editTextStopId);
editText.addTextChangedListener(new TextWatcher() {
    @Override
    public void beforeTextChanged (CharSequence s,int start, int count,
    int after){
    }
    @Override
    public void onTextChanged ( final CharSequence s, int start, int before,
    int count){
        //You need to remove this to run only once
        handler.removeCallbacks(input_finish_checker);

    }
    @Override
    public void afterTextChanged ( final Editable s){
        //avoid triggering event when text is empty
        if (s.length() > 0) {
            last_text_edit = System.currentTimeMillis();
            handler.postDelayed(input_finish_checker, delay);
        } else {

        }
    }
}

);

Answer 2

There is a very simple and easy way of doing this using RxBindings for Android,

Get the library if you haven't already,

compile 'com.jakewharton.rxbinding:rxbinding:0.4.0'

Add and modify this snippet to your needs,

RxTextView.textChanges(mEditText)
            .debounce(3, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
            .subscribe(textChanged -> {
                Log.d("TAG", "Stopped typing!");
            });

What is Debounce Operator? - Learn more about it here

In our context, debounce will only notify you of the text change inside the EditText after a certain time has passed from the last text change that occurred inside the EditText.

Here I am waiting for 3 seconds until the last text change happened to conclude that the user has stopped typing. You can modify it according to your needs.

Answer 3

If you use Kotlin, use this extension function:

fun TextView.afterTextChangedDelayed(afterTextChanged: (String) -> Unit) {
    this.addTextChangedListener(object : TextWatcher {
        var timer: CountDownTimer? = null

        override fun beforeTextChanged(p0: CharSequence?, p1: Int, p2: Int, p3: Int) {}

        override fun onTextChanged(p0: CharSequence?, p1: Int, p2: Int, p3: Int) {}

        override fun afterTextChanged(editable: Editable?) {
            timer?.cancel()
            timer = object : CountDownTimer(1000, 1500) {
                override fun onTick(millisUntilFinished: Long) {}
                override fun onFinish() { 
                    afterTextChanged.invoke(editable.toString()) 
                }
            }.start()
        }
    })
}

Use example:

editTextPassword.afterTextChangedDelayed {
    registerViewModel.addUserPassword(it)
}