Sidekick for Android

In Sidekick’s setup, tap Go to Settings, turn on Sidekick and confirm Android’s keyboard notice. Return to Sidekick and tap Choose Sidekick, then select it in the system chooser. Enabling the keyboard and selecting it are two separate steps. Android keeps the keyboard you picked until you switch again.

• Samsung Galaxy: in the phone’s Settings, open General management → Keyboard list and default. Turn on Sidekick, then open Default keyboard and choose Sidekick.
• Other Android phones: look under System → Keyboard → On-screen keyboard to enable Sidekick, then use Choose Sidekick in the app. If the labels differ, search the phone’s Settings for “keyboard” or “default keyboard”.

You do not need a keyboard icon in the navigation bar. Samsung lets you hide that button; Sidekick’s chooser and the Default keyboard setting work without it. If the chooser does not appear, use Open Settings in Sidekick and follow the path above. Cancelling the chooser does not select a keyboard.

Get the app from Google Play and sign in with your OpenCharts account first; the keyboard has no sign-in screen of its own.

Allow the microphone when setup asks, then say hello. The moving dots show the microphone working; this check stays on your phone and is discarded, not transcribed or saved. In a quiet room, Next appears after the microphone has started listening. Skip for now lets you continue without claiming the microphone worked.

If permission was denied, tap Open Settings and allow Sidekick’s microphone permission, then return to the same setup step. You can also find it in the phone’s Settings → Apps → Sidekick → Permissions → Microphone. Sidekick checks permission again when you return. If the microphone cannot start, use Try microphone again; check that your phone’s microphone access is on and another app is not using it.

With Sidekick as your keyboard, tap the mic at the right of the bar, talk, then tap the check when you are done. The words land at your cursor, cleaned up for wherever you are writing — a chat, an email, a note.

Android lets a keyboard use the microphone while it is on the screen, so every dictation happens where you are typing. The very first tap after a restart shows “Opening…” for a moment while Sidekick gets ready in the background; after that the mic answers at once.

Each of these opens Sidekick ready to listen; the words land on your clipboard, or in the field if the Sidekick keyboard is up when you go back.

• Quick Settings tile. Edit your Quick Settings and add the Sidekick tile. One tap opens Sidekick ready to listen, from any screen.
• App shortcut. Long-press the Sidekick icon on your home screen and choose Talk to start a dictation straight away.

The keyboard never reaches the network itself; it hands your voice to the Sidekick app on the same phone. It reads the text around your cursor so Theo can fit the words in, and sends that along only while Context Awareness is on in Dictation settings; turn that off and only your voice is sent.

A dictation on the keyboard and one in the Sidekick app itself can never run at once — they share the same microphone. Recordings and their transcripts stay on your phone; your dictionary, shorthand, transforms and language picks sync with your account.