Android is a brilliant mobile operating system, but it's not without its flaws. Even 7 years after its launch, it doesn't have one basic element: the ability to undo and redo text. A neat little app is here to fix that. Meet Inputting+.

Can you imagine not using Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y? Those are some of the ultimate keyboard shortcuts for Windows. But Android has had no built-in way to retrieve text you accidentally deleted, or go back to the original version of text that you rewrote.

Inputting+ is a free app looking to fill that void, with a paid version for extra features.

How Secure Is Inputting+?

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Once you download and install the app from the Google Play Store, you will first need to grant it permission in Android's Accessibility settings. Naturally, you are probably worried that it will take your data and send it to a remote server. Don't worry, Inputting+ does not have access to the web, it is a local app.

Inputting+ won't monitor passwords by default, so you can rest assured that your important data isn't being saved. However, if you want it to remember passwords, there's a toggle to do that.

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It also lets you add apps to a blacklist. Any app in the blacklist won't be monitored by Inputting+.

Pro Tip: Just to be on the safe side, switch off access to Google Play Store. Play Store often asks for details like your credit card details, passwords, and other personal data.

Finally, you can also lock your timeline (more on that later) with a PIN, ensuring no one can see your saved words.

One more thing: Inputting+ works with your existing keyboard app. No matter which alternative keyboard for Android you use, Inputting+ will take the text and store it locally, so you can go back to it.

How Inputting+ Works

Once Inputting is running, you'll see it as a little blue floating icon near your keyboard. The app tracks everything you type and everything you edit. Everything happens in the background and you don't need to worry about it till you actually need to undo/redo what you wrote. In that case, tap the floating icon and Inputting+ shows up as a pop-up window.

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Undo and Redo: Tap the Undo or Redo arrows to find the text you had recently typed. It saves any major change to the text you were typing, so you might need multiple taps to get it right, but hey, it's better than retyping a long email, right? Also, it works across apps, so something you wrote and erased in a Gmail message could then be used in a text message.

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Find and Replace: Inputting+ also has a built-in feature to find and replace certain words or phrases in the text you are currently editing. It's not as powerful as some Windows apps to find and replace words in multiple files, but it's better than nothing! Again, it works just like you would expect it to.

Paste from Clipboard: Inputting+ Pro (an in-app purchase of $1.49, currently discounted to $0.99) also works with Clip Stack to improve the copy and paste functionality. Clip Stack is a clipboard manager which will copy and save multiple chunks of text.

Why You Should Pay a Dollar

Inputting+ Pro costs just a dollar, but the functionality it adds is worth much more. With the Pro upgrade, you get:

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Timeline: Inputting+ will save almost everything you type in a clipboard, arranged by date and appended with an app icon so you know where you wrote it. This timeline alone is worth that dollar because in just 2 hours of using it, it already saved me major hassles twice. It's like Lazarus throughout your Android.

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Clip Stack: As mentioned above, the Clip Stack functionality comes with the Pro upgrade and it's brilliant. You'll need to install Clip Stack, of course, which is a great app itself as it sits in your notification tray and tracks anything you copy.

The Problems with Inputting+

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That's not to say Inputting+ is flawless. Even though you're paying a dollar, be ready for a few disappointments.

It doesn't work with apps that use WebView, such as Google Chrome, or the two major office suites for Android, Google Docs and Microsoft Office. The developer says on the Play Store that he is working to get this fixed.

While the floating icon shows only when your keyboard activates in a text field; it can still be annoying. For example, it's right on the "Send" key for several IM apps. In the app's settings, you can adjust the transparency of this icon. Tap and hold to move the floating icon around.

Pro tip: If you use Swype, put the icon on the Swype settings key. You don't use it often, and this way, the icon doesn't interfere otherwise.

I really wish Inputting had the option to run in the notifications pane, like Clip Stacks does, instead of needing this constant icon.

Get Inputting+

With everything said and done, this is still the only app to offer undo and redo in Android, find and replace functionality, and a pretty sweet clipboard manager, all rolled into one. You can try the undo/redo and find/replace by downloading the free app (no ads) and then decide to pay for more features if you like it.

Download: Inputting+ for Android (Free | $0.99 for Pro)

What Core Feature is Missing in Android?

Undo/redo is a pretty big miss in Android. Remember, iOS has this baked in, as does Windows. What other major core features do you feel are missing from Android?