When it comes to text input, Flutter applications must offer a seamless user experience. When a user touches outside the TextField, one typical requirement is to conceal the keyboard.
You can improve usability and stop the keyboard from blocking the display by adding this functionality.
We will look at how to implement this behaviour in Flutter in this blog article.
Why Hide the Keyboard When Tapping Outside the TextField?
The keyboard, which takes up a sizable section of the screen, appears when users interact with a TextField.
If the user needs to look at other areas of the interface while entering text, this may result in a less immersive experience.
When the user taps outside the TextField, the keyboard can be instantly hidden, allowing you to:
- Provide a distraction-free interface: Users can focus on other elements of the screen without the keyboard blocking their view.
- Improve usability: Tapping outside the TextField acts as an intuitive way for users to dismiss the keyboard, similar to how they would expect it to behave in other apps.
Implementing Keyboard Hiding in Flutter
To hide the keyboard when the user taps outside the TextField in Flutter, follow these steps:
Step 1: Import the necessary packages
Ensure that you have imported the required packages for handling gestures in Flutter:
import 'package:flutter/material.dart'; import 'package:flutter/services.dart';
Step 2: Wrap the TextField with a GestureDetector
Wrap the TextField widget with a GestureDetector to detect taps outside the TextField:
GestureDetector(
behavior: HitTestBehavior.opaque,
onTap: () {
// Hide the keyboard by unfocusing the TextField
FocusScope.of(context).unfocus();
},
child: TextField(
// TextField properties...
),
),
In the above code snippet, the GestureDetector listens for taps using the onTap callback. When a tap occurs, the keyboard is hidden by unfocusing the TextField using FocusScope.of(context).unfocus().
Step 3: Handling keyboard hiding on other gestures
By default, Flutter automatically hides the keyboard when the user scrolls or swipes the screen.
However, if your app includes other interactive elements where the user might tap outside the TextField, you can incorporate similar hiding functionality for those gestures as well.
Conclusion
You may dramatically improve the user experience in your Flutter application by introducing the capability to hide the keyboard when the user taps outside the TextField.
Users will value the smooth transition and the absence of any interruptions when interacting with other UI elements.
To guarantee a consistent and simple user experience, test the functionality across a range of gadgets and screen sizes. You can make interesting apps that make a good impression by putting user ease and usability first.
Implement the keyboard concealment behaviour right away to give consumers a more seamless and immersive text input experience in your Flutter app.
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