Feature Request: Customizable Keyboard Shortcuts

New feature: Allow users to change keyboard shortcuts to whatever key/key combinations suit them.

Many browsers do not natively support this, such as Google Chrome, Edge and Firefox. Addons exist for both chromium and Firefox that provide this functionality, but the problem is this does not always work as well as the native implementation would work, such as when the extension malfunctions, does not load quickly enough etc.

The ideal implementation can be found in the Vivaldi web browser at the following location:

vivaldi://settings/keyboard/

This screen allows the user to see all the keyboard shortcuts available to the user and allows them to set them or unset them, giving a great amount of control over the browser via a native and safe method.

Speaking personally, some shortcuts are very difficult/awkward to press because of the distance/position of some keys on the keyboard, so being able to change the shortcut to something easier, especially changing a two+ key shortcut to a one key shortcut, is a game changer.

@vanquish did you never stop to think to look through Braveā€™s settings?

Settings ā†’ System - > Shortcuts
or simply brave://settings/system/shortcuts

From there you can see and edit all existing shortcuts.

Kind of weird for you to be requesting something that doesnā€™t exist and speak of it like the browser doesnā€™t have it.

ever stop to think of not behaving like an asshole towards other human beings?
Obviously I did look, but I didnā€™t find it.

Genuinely donā€™t understand why youā€™re acting like I attacked someone, but fyi, normal people usually just say ā€œActually, it does exist. Itā€™s hereā€¦ā€ but at least you ended up helping regardless.

Iā€™m not. If I was an asshole I would have been a lot meaner and rambled about how lazy you were and all. Instead I answered your question and emphasized the important of trying to look for things yourself.

Iā€™m still going to be nice, but Iā€™m going to be very blunt with you on the rest of thisā€¦

Truthfully, you didnā€™t look. You might say you opened settings and did a quick glimpse, but you put no effort into it. I mean, when you open settings, thereā€™s a search glass.

See it on the top right?

image

If you clicked on that and typed in Shortcuts

See how it showed the options and even highlighted? It would show you any and all options in settings for shortcuts, which included what to do. So it literally would have been resolved very quickly by doing a literal search and then seeing what came up.

Not responding like that at all. If I thought that, Iā€™d have just flagged the comment or called you out on it. What I am calling you out on is being like so many people who come to complain but donā€™t take the time to look at things or even search for other topics.

There are pinned FAQ articles with answers on some things, there are official help articles in the Help Center, etc.

To give more examples of why I say you didnā€™t search:

For example, keyboard shortcuts are talked about at https://support.brave.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032272171-What-keyboard-shortcuts-can-I-use-in-Brave

So going to the general help center at https://support.brave.com/hc/en-us and then to Desktop and browsing basics, youā€™d see it.

Or you could have used the miraculous search function and found it:

Or you could have searched through topics here on Brave Community, where perhaps a person could try to Search Before Posting and they would have seen topics or responses like:

or

Amazing how many ways you could find the answer just by trying to search, isnā€™t it? Whether it be directly in your browserā€™s settings, Help Center, Brave Community, or even just by using search enginesā€¦all of which can lead to answers. Sure, it might take a few minutes, but itā€™s there. People just get too lazy and theyā€™ll rush to create topics because itā€™s easier.

People are learning that if they just post somewhere, thereā€™s a high likelihood someone will answer. In turn, they get lazy as hell and donā€™t want to spend 1-5 minutes or more searching for an answer. Itā€™s just better to spend 5 seconds to write a question and go about their business. Then it floods out posts/topics of people with actual issues and makes it harder for them to get assistance.

@Saoiray I see your reply here: CAn I disable or change the "close browser" keyboard shortcut cmd-q (MacOS) - #4 by Saoiray

What should one do if they donā€™t see the - icon to remove a shortcut? Does that mean itā€™s a shortcut that canā€™t be removed?

This was being looked into by @Mattches as various people are having issues. But I guess as of this moment, Mac canā€™t remove shortcuts for some reason. Not 100% if itā€™s like that for all or just some. Iā€™m Windows only so canā€™t test myself.

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Interesting. I hope this can get worked out.

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Yes, yesā€¦ but brave://settings/system/shortcuts opens a page that doesnā€™t show ā€˜shortcutsā€™

Iā€™m on MacOS trying to disable a specific keyboard shortcut in Brave (CMD + Shift + D to bookmark all tabs); I have a systemwide automator shortcut with the same keystrokes I want to use instead.

It looks like Brave on MacOS currently doesnā€™t allow me to disable/remove a default keyboard shortcut - any idea if that is definitely the case, or if there is a way I can disable this shortcut in Brave so my systemwide keyboard shortcut will work?

TIA!

@revstone rather than typing it all out, I did a short video. Can you confirm whether your situation does or doesnā€™t work the same way? I know before some on Mac said they hadnā€™t. If youā€™re reporting Mac definitely is different, Iā€™ll try to loop in some from Brave again and check to make sure if any Github is open. If no Github, Iā€™ll make one.

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Thank you for the lightning quick response. On MacOS 14 Sonoma I donā€™t have any mouseover modals or options for the default shortcuts, but a ā€œremoveā€ icon shows up on keyboard shortcuts that are added in addition to the defaults. Screen recording here:

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@Mattches @steeven
I found that there are at least two Github, with one being closed as if it had been resolved. Hoping yā€™all can get perhaps update a bit on this.

Open issue (I just tagged Rebron and Jay on)

Closed one:

@revstone other thing I noticed mentioned in those Github above is as can see on the screenshot here:

I have never owned or used a Mac in my life, so not too familiar with things. But could it be that those shortcuts that you canā€™t remove can be found in the OS Settings? If so, this might be what they are saying needs to be done. Though if so Iā€™d hope we can get them to provide some sort of notice within the Shortcuts menu so people know to look to OS settings instead.

Guess just trying to do another quick follow-up here to know for sure. In the meanwhile, will just have to wait for support and/or devs to respond and see what can be done.

Interestingā€¦ I have set a systemwide keyboard shortcut in MacOS for SHIFT + CMD + D to run a little AppleScript in Automator, which allows me to insert the current date/time via that shortcut in various applications like TextEdit, Notes, etc.

Works a charm in other applications, but then in Brave it falls over ā€“ Brave supersedes the MacOS shortcut and applies its own default behavior for that same key combination, bookmarking all current tabs rather than writing out the current date/time.

That I can see, there isnā€™t a listing for this keyboard shortcut in MacOS itself registered by Brave, but Iā€™ll look around again to see if itā€™s crept in there somehow.

That there isnā€™t a little ā€œdeleteā€ modal appearing over the default keyboard shortcut in Brave on MacOS when there is in Windows makes me think there is something going awry in the MacOS build.

I just changed my shortcut to SHIFT + OPTION + COMMAND + D, which doesnā€™t appear captured by Brave, and that does work ā€“ current date/time now prints into the active text box in Brave, same as other apps.

Would still love to find a way to fully customize the shortcuts and get back to a 3-key instead of 4-key shortcut, but for now this workaround may do the trick :slight_smile:

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