In Android Google Sheets, "enter key" (->|) won't move to cell below. How to fix?

Question

I don't know when or how I changed the behavior of the "enter key" (->|) in Google Sheets for Android. It used to enter the text I was typing (if any) into the current cell and then move to the cell below the current cell. This is what I want.

But for no apparent reason, "enter" now adds a line feed to the end of the text being typed and does NOT go to the next cell below.

Wrap Text is NOT selected and never has been.

How do I make touching the "enter" key move to the cell below the current cell and NOT merely add a line feed to the text being typed into the current cell?

*** EDITED *** FWIW, I just noticed that touching "enter" twice puts a line feed at the end of the text being entered and THEN moves to the cell below the current cell, a bit surprising--why not add a second line feed? After all, if we're allowed to enter entire paragraphs into a cell, why not a generally-accepted properly-formatted second paragraph (blank line between the two)?

Surely the vast majority of users would prefer to have "enter" move to the next cell below the current line (or simply staying in the current cell) than adding a linefeed for possible (but rare) additional lines. I don't get it.

Why is there not an option to specify "enter" key behavior, as in Excel? (Or is there one and that's what I can't find?)

Answer 1

It depends on the keyboard you are using. I tested it first with Gboard and secondly with Hacker's Keyboard and Microsoft SwiftKey Keyboard. With Gboard pressing Enter, insert a new line on the same cell. With Hacker's keyboard and Swiftkey, it takes you to the cell below. So, a possible solution is to use another keyboard (if GBoard is your default keyboard) while using Google Sheets.

Why is there not an option to specify "enter" key behavior, as in Excel?

That's a question Google developers (Gboard) will answer better than us as to why their keyboard behavior is different from the other (I have not found a webpage yet a reason for this behavior).

(Or is there one and that's what I can't find?)

There isn't one (for now).

Disclaimer: I am just a user of the mentioned keyboard apps.

Answer 2

Using Swiftkey and probably any other keyboard, you can long press the text input box to bring up the menu and select "Insert line break". (Sheets Version 1.23.242.03.9 - 26 June 2023 with Android 13)

Using Hacker's keyboard, you can do Alt + Enter

Answer 3

My workaround: put a blank space at the end of each line of text in cells where you want Enter to always move down to the cell below the active cell. Then Enter moves to the next cell below.

Adding end-of-text spaces is a sufficient way to get "dropdown" cursor movement. But sometimes the cursor moves down without a space at end of text in a cell. So it's not a necessary thing to do.

I haven't tried to study the end-of-text characters to find a pattern or a rule for when adding a space is necessary and when not. Won't try anytime soon. Maybe someone knows or will do exhaustive testing and notetaking to find the rules.