[BRLTTY] btkey: your Linux console as a Bluetooth keyboard for a phone

[Yannick PLASSIARD]

Hi Nicolas,

Thanks so much for that, can’t wait to give it a try and test it with my devices (iOS and Android). What makes thing thing even better to me, is that it only behave like a physical bluetooth device (keyboard or audio), which means nothing to install on the target device.

Again congratulations for this work that will be immensely useful for sure.

Cheers,
Yannick

> Le 3 sept. 2026 à 18:47, Nicolas Pitre <nico at fluxnic.net> a écrit :
> 
> Hello,
> 
> Are you often switching between your phone and your Linux system, and 
> having to type a lot on the touchscreen keyboard, or to keep an extra 
> Bluetooth keyboard on your desk?  If you are like me, your full size 
> desktop keyboard is the most comfortable to use, and the fastest too. 
> Have you ever wondered how nice it would be to use it in the Android or 
> iOS environment?
> 
> Here is btkey, which turns a Linux text console into a Bluetooth 
> keyboard for a phone or tablet.
> 
> Run it on a spare virtual terminal.  While that VT is in the foreground, 
> every keystroke goes to the paired phone instead of to Linux.  Switch 
> away with Alt+Fn and the keyboard is Linux's again; switch back and 
> forwarding resumes.  The foreground VT is the on/off switch, so there is 
> no mode to remember and nothing to toggle.
> 
> The phone sees a standard Bluetooth HID keyboard, so on iOS everything a 
> real keyboard does works, VoiceOver's Ctrl+Option chords included.
> 
> Of particular interest here: typing on the braille display's own 
> keyboard reaches the phone too, and btkey is built to coexist with 
> BRLTTY rather than compete with it for the keyboard.  Where BRLTTY has 
> grabbed a keyboard to put braille commands on it, btkey takes the uinput 
> keyboard BRLTTY publishes instead, so both keep working.  Text pasted on 
> the Linux side is typed across as well.
> 
> btkey can also advertise the machine as a Bluetooth speaker, so the 
> phone's audio comes out of the PC.  That is off by default and needs the 
> PC's own Bluetooth audio set up, which the documentation covers.  It is 
> good for music; for VoiceOver speech the lag may or may not bother you.
> 
> It needs root, a Bluetooth Classic controller, and a real text console: 
> not ssh, not tmux, not a terminal emulator.
> 
>  https://github.com/npitre/btkey
> 
> Early days, version 0.1.5, and feedback is very welcome, especially from 
> anyone pairing with Android, which it has had far less testing against 
> than iOS.
> 
> 
> Nicolas
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