How can I make the Android emulator show the soft keyboard?

I'm debugging an issue with the soft keyboard display not displaying when it should. However, I don't have a device handy for testing. The problem is that the emulator never shows the soft keyboard.

Some skins have a keyboard constantly displayed on the right, some don't, but none that I've tried so far has ever shown a keyboard on the device screen.

Is there some setting that I missed?

Solution 1:

I found out how to do this on the Android emulator itself (Menu, "Settings" App - not the settings of the emulator outside). All you need to do is:

open settings app -> Language & Input -> Go to the "Keyboard & Input Methods -> click Default

This will bring up a Dialog in which case you can then disable the Hardware Keyboard by switching the hardware keyboard from on to off. This will disable the Hardware keyboard and enable the softkeyboard.

Solution 2:

Here are the steps:

=> Settings
=> Language and Input
=> Default
=> Hardware Physical Keyboard
=> off to turn on the On Screen Keyboard

Settings =>Language and Input

Select Default

Hardware Physical Keyboard => off

Solution 3:

If you're using AVD manager add a hardware property Keyboard support and set it to false.

That should disable the shown keyboard, and show the virtual one.

Solution 4:

Settings > Language & input > Current keyboard > Hardware Switch ON.

This option worked.

Solution 5:

Settings > Language & input > Current keyboard > Hardware Switch ON.
It allows you to use your physical keyboard for input while at the same time showing the soft keyboard. I just tested it on Android Lollipop and it works.