Stop cursor from moving to end of word when touching text The default android behaviour when interacting with editable text seems to be to move the cursor to the end of the word you've touched, regardless of your touch location.

This is undesirable in many situations, e.g. if you have a stylus or a precise hand or a big screen and big text, or custom left and right arrows on your navigation bar, or a very long string without spaces.

Is there any way to prevent android from moving your cursor?
Future captain me here with an answer! Apparently this tap on word + cursor placement thing is not managed by the OS but by the keyboard app you use. 

So here's a config that works great:


Use Swiftkey keyboard.


The problem is Swiftkey sucks big time: 


it doesn't solve the question's problem, which is a crime against human competence.
it always inserts a space after a period, making urls or "e.g." impossible to write.
it doesn't let you capitalize the next letter after space only after pressing space after the dot, ie if you weren't writing a url.
you keep accidentally tapping on dot instead of space while typing quickly and you can't change the layout.


The following steps will de-suck Swiftkey and solve all your keyboard problems:


Root your device. Don't listen to your "parents". Best security is on rooted phones unless you're really unsavvy in which case it's just as bad as not rooting. (but for this you can unroot afterwards) 


If you're concerned about Swiftkey privacy now you can install a firewall that blocks or monitors its internet access.

Install the Android Xposed Framework and Xposed Installer (may not work (yet) on the latest version(s) of android) (needs root, but you can unroot after the install if you must).
Download and install the "Exi for Swiftkey" Xposed module (github).


Just crawl through Exi's settings and you'll find the right checkboxes. It magically changes swiftkey's tap on words and other behaviours.

*flies away*