Mobile Caret for Godot 4

Touch-friendly text carets and selection handles for Godot 4, in the style of Android. Drop it into your project and every LineEdit and TextEdit gets draggable handles, with no per-scene setup.

Motivation

Godot's built-in caret is a thin line that is hard to see and almost impossible to place precisely with a finger. This plugin adds large, easy-to-grab handles so editing text on a phone feels natural.

Features

• Draggable caret handle: a handle appears under the caret; drag it to move the caret.
• Selection handles: when text is selected, two handles mark the start and end. Drag either one to adjust the selection, and they can cross over each other.
• Long-press to select a word.
• Smooth dragging: the handle follows your finger while the caret snaps to the nearest character. Dragging past the edge of a control scrolls it.
• Floating toolbar (optional): an Android-style Cut / Copy / Paste / Select all bar above the selection. It lives in its own folder, nothing else depends on it, and it can be switched on and off from code.
• Auto-fading caret handle: the single caret handle fades out after a few seconds of inactivity and returns when you tap or move the caret. Selection handles stay visible.
• Native caret hiding: optionally hide Godot's own thin caret while a handle is shown, or only while dragging.
• Works with what you already have: supports LineEdit, TextEdit, CodeEdit and the LineEdit inside a SpinBox (including wrapped text, scrolling, gutters, alignment, clear buttons, secret fields and different font sizes) without changing your scenes. The text control keeps focus, so the on-screen keyboard stays up while you drag.
• Right-to-left and mixed-direction text: Hebrew, Arabic and mixed text get correctly placed handles, in left-to-right and right-to-left layouts.
• Windows and SubViewports: controls in a separate Window, an embedded window or a SubViewport get their handles and toolbar inside their own viewport.
• Multiple carets: a TextEdit with several carets gets handles for every caret, each draggable on its own.
• Customizable: use your own handle texture, size and color.

Installation

1. Download the repository (or use the Asset Library) and copy addons/MobileCaret into your project's addons/ folder.
2. Open Project Settings > Plugins and enable MobileCaret. This registers two autoloads: MobileCaret (the handles) and MobileCaretToolbar (the optional toolbar).

That's it. Run your project and focus any LineEdit or TextEdit.

If you prefer not to use the plugin, add addons/MobileCaret/CaretsController/carets_controller.tscn (and, if you want the toolbar, addons/MobileCaret/Toolbar/caret_toolbar.tscn) as autoloads yourself.

An example scene is included at addons/MobileCaret/Examples/example_scene.tscn.

Usage

• Move the caret: drag the handle under the caret.
• Select text: long-press a word (or double-tap). Two handles appear; drag them to adjust the selection.
• Replace or collapse a selection: just type, or tap elsewhere, as usual.

Settings

Select the MobileCaret autoload (or carets_controller node) and adjust its exported properties, or set them from code, for example MobileCaret.handle_color = Color.ORANGE.

Look

Gestures

Fade

Native caret

If a control already has its own caret_color override, it is restored exactly when the native caret is shown again.

Floating toolbar

The toolbar (addons/MobileCaret/Toolbar) is a separate autoload, MobileCaretToolbar. Nothing in the handles' code depends on it: remove its autoload, or switch it off in code, and everything else works the same. If the MobileCaret controller is present the toolbar also listens to its handle_tapped signal; without it the toolbar still works from focus and selection alone. It works for LineEdit, TextEdit, CodeEdit, the LineEdit inside a SpinBox and selectable RichTextLabels, in the main window and in any other Window or SubViewport. A RichTextLabel gets the toolbar only: Godot cannot set its selection from code, so there are no selection handles for it.

• It appears above a selection once the selection has settled and no mouse button is held, so it stays out of the way while you drag a handle. If there is no room above, it goes below the selection. It keeps its physical size, only shrinking when a small viewport is too narrow for it.
• It only offers what applies: Cut and Paste need an editable control, Paste needs something on the clipboard, and Select all is hidden when everything is already selected. A password field (secret) never offers Copy, Cut or Share.
• Tapping a caret handle (without dragging) shows Paste / Select all at the caret.
• Tapping inside an existing selection keeps the selection and shows or hides the toolbar, like Android.
• After Copy the selection stays and the toolbar hides until the selection changes (or you tap it). Typing or moving the caret hides it too.
• The ··· button opens an overflow menu with Undo, Redo and (optionally) Share; ‹ goes back.

Control it from code:

MobileCaretToolbar.enabled = false      # switch it off, and back on with true
MobileCaretToolbar.show_for_caret()     # show Paste / Select all at the caret now
MobileCaretToolbar.hide_toolbar()       # hide it until the selection changes
MobileCaretToolbar.action_pressed.connect(func(action): print(action))  # "cut", "copy", "paste", "select_all", "undo", "redo", "share"

# The Share button only shows when you turn it on; the toolbar cannot share by itself.
MobileCaretToolbar.show_share = true
MobileCaretToolbar.share_requested.connect(func(text): print("share: ", text))

Bug reports, ideas and pull requests are welcome.