Esc should focus the input bar again

[Hocuri]

When the focus is somewhere else (e.g. in the search), and I press Escape, it would be nice if the focus can go back to the input bar.

[WofWca]

We can move the focus to the composer once, but if the focus is already on the composer, I'm not sure if we can afford to keep it there when the escape is pressed again.

In normal web pages escape usually removes focus, and accessibility tools might be relying on this behavior.

Related: #4590

[WofWca]

In normal web pages escape usually removes focus

Actually, we could make a workaround for this. If the focus on something other than the composer, then pressing escape once will remove focus. Pressing escape a second time will move it to the composer.
But yes, then obviously one will have to press escape twice to get the composer focused.

[WofWca]

In normal web pages escape usually removes focus, and accessibility tools might be relying on this behavior.

Hmmm or am I misremembering things? Tested a few websites. Nothing is happening when I press Escape while focused on an input.

[WofWca]

Hmm also note that we have #5920, which makes the focus go to the chat list if you press Escape in the composer.

deltachat-desktop/packages/frontend/src/components/composer/Composer.tsx

Lines 362 to 363 in 8244d1c

	// Focus the chatlist item to enable arrow key navigation between chats
	ActionEmitter.emitAction(KeybindAction.ChatList_FocusItems)

Which is close to what other messengers, such as Telegram and WhatsApp do. They unselect the active chat.
Edit: see discussions:

• unexpected "Escape" key behaviours #4128 (comment)
• https://support.delta.chat/t/closing-chats-with-escape-key-show-contact-list-hide-chat-log/5068?u=wofwca

This doesn't entirely contradict the idea of this issue though. We can still go back to the composer if we have focused something other than the chat list I guess.

[r10s]

When the focus is somewhere else (e.g. in the search), and I press Escape, it would be nice if the focus can go back to the input bar.

which other messengers are doing that? it seems more usual to close the chat on escape

This doesn't entirely contradict the idea of this issue though. We can still go back to the composer if we have focused something other than the chat list I guess.

hm, not so sure if that works nice in practise, esp. for the usecase of "hit escape, close quick for privacy reasons"

[WofWca]

This doesn't entirely contradict the idea of this issue though. We can still go back to the composer if we have focused something other than the chat list I guess.

hm, not so sure if that works nice in practise, esp. for the usecase of "hit escape, close quick for privacy reasons"

To clarify, in such a case we'd focus the composer on first "Escape", then on the second "Escape" we'd go to the chat list.
There are anyway many such cases where you need to press Escape multiple times: closing the app or emoji picker, removing the quote, exiting "edit" mode.

[ztx-lyghters]

Usually I expect the chat to be closed on Escape, which I have proposed on Discourse. Don't remember Escape being for UI focus in other messengers. Maybe some separate key combinations for focusing specific UI elements would be a better solution?

[WofWca]

Maybe some separate key combinations for focusing specific UI elements would be a better solution?

We have Ctrl + M.
(I've also been considering adding a visual hint about the shortcut, e.g. in the placeholder).