[Android TV 14] Accessibility Service makes short OK/DPAD_CENTER behave as long press and breaks D-pad navigation

[c40178g]

Have you checked if an issue already exists for this bug?

• Nobody else has reported this bug before

Have you tried restarting your device?

• I have tried restarting my device and that did not help

What happened that you did not expect?

I found a reproducible issue with Key Mapper 4.3.0-foss on a Xiaomi Mi TV Stick 4K running Android 14.

Simply enabling the Key Mapper Accessibility Service changes the behaviour of OK / DPAD_CENTER and D-pad navigation in Android TV Home.

With Key Mapper Accessibility disabled, a short press of OK on an application tile immediately launches the application, as expected.

As soon as I enable the Key Mapper Accessibility Service, the same short OK press opens the long-press context menu instead ("Open", "Move", "Remove from favorites", etc.).

D-pad navigation is also affected. In particular, when rearranging applications on the Android TV Home screen, the directional buttons do not behave normally and moving applications becomes unreliable.

The issue reproduces with both:

• the original Xiaomi Bluetooth remote;
• a UGOOS UR02 Bluetooth remote.

I isolated the issue further:

• all Key Mapper key maps were Paused;
• Expert Mode was not started;
• keymapper_sysbridge was manually killed and confirmed not running;
• the problem still occurred.

If I disable only the Key Mapper Accessibility Service in Android settings, normal Android TV Home behaviour is restored immediately.

Therefore, this appears to be a bug in the Accessibility Service / key event handling path rather than a problem caused by a particular key map or by Expert Mode/System Bridge.

I found issue #2069 while searching for similar reports. It is remotely similar because it also concerns D-pad/input behaviour in Key Mapper 4.x, but I do not think this report is a duplicate.

My case has a much more specific reproduction condition: no active mapping or System Bridge is required. Enabling the Accessibility Service alone is sufficient to reproduce the problem.

What did you expect to happen?

A short press of OK / DPAD_CENTER should immediately launch the selected application in Android TV Home.

The context menu ("Open", "Move", "Remove from favorites", etc.) should only appear after a long press of OK.

D-pad Up / Down / Left / Right should also continue to work normally when navigating Android TV Home and when rearranging applications.

Enabling the Key Mapper Accessibility Service should not change the behaviour of keys that are not being remapped.

What would the developer need to do to reproduce the bug?

1. Install Key Mapper 4.3.0-foss on a Xiaomi Mi TV Stick 4K running Android 14.
2. Do not start Expert Mode.
3. Pause all key maps (or do not create any key maps).
4. Enable Key Mapper in Android Settings -> Accessibility.
5. Open Android TV Home.
6. Highlight any application in the Favorites row.
7. Short-press OK / DPAD_CENTER.

Actual result:
The long-press context menu opens ("Open", "Move", "Remove from favorites", etc.).

Expected result:
The application should launch immediately.

8. Try rearranging applications on Android TV Home.
9. D-pad navigation is also affected and directional navigation/movement does not behave normally.
10. Disable only the Key Mapper Accessibility Service in Android settings.
11. Repeat the same tests.

Result:
Short OK immediately launches applications again and D-pad navigation returns to normal.

Additional isolation test performed on my device:

• Key maps: Paused
• Expert Mode: not started
• keymapper_sysbridge: manually killed and confirmed not running

The problem still occurred until the Key Mapper Accessibility Service itself was disabled.

App version

4.3.0-foss

Android version

Android 14

Device model and manufacturer

Xiaomi Mi TV Stick 4K (MiTV-AYFR0)

Extra info

• My device is rooted