Remove orange selector on Android

[potent cypress]

I would like to remove this orange selector that appears when tapping elements in my dashboard on the Home Assistant Companion Android app. There are also some fainter ones that appear on the preset color picker for lights. I was thinking using Global Mod if it’s something that I could fix with CSS but unsure if that’s the best solution as I would have to edit the themes I’m using.

[sleek ridge]

I don't see that on my android app on any of my devices. I wonder if it is an accessibility setting on your device.

[potent cypress]

This is a Lenovo Smart Display running an older version of Android Things, with the latest HA app

Idk if it’s accessibility because i don’t know if i can even access that lol

[rare drum]

I agree with Shadowthorn regarding the accessibility option. Trying to Google a fix tells me there is an Accessibility menu. It just a matter of finding it because, depending on your device, it may be in a different spot than a different model. Go hunting through the Settings.

[potent cypress]

The thing is this is not a typical Android device, this is a smart display that I rooted to run this, and it runs Android 8. There is no Settings app installed on this, thus no accessibility, rather just an “Android Things” settings that lets you change the Wi-Fi network and view system info. I know that ChromeVox does a similar orange box thing but that does TTS for every element including native ones (and there is no TTS coming out of this device). That and the HA Companion app settings doesn’t have this outline, only some elements being pressed on the webview, not all of them, so I think it’s not accessibility.

I did found this peculiar clue on Stack Overflow though that looks like this something common to Chrome browsers on older android https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5210481/disable-orange-outline-highlight-on-focus

[potent cypress]

I mitigated the issue using a custom JS resource I had Gemini write. It seems to be an issue with this old Android sticking focus on button elements, so this simply removes focus as long as it is not an important input where focus is required like a text area. Now when tapping these buttons, the orange highlight appears for a brief moment then disappears quickly. Good enough for me until I can figure out how to get rid of it entirely haha

/**
 * Android Focus Fix
 * Focuses exclusively on killing "Sticky Focus" efficiently
 * Generated with Google Gemini 3
 */
(function() {
  const killFocus = (e) => {
    // composedPath[0] gets the exact element touched, even deep in Shadow DOM
    const target = e.composedPath()[0];

    // Safety: Don't blur text inputs or you'll never be able to type!
    if (!target || /INPUT|TEXTAREA|SELECT/.test(target.tagName) || target.isContentEditable) {
      return;
    }

    // Use requestAnimationFrame to sync with the very next frame
    // This is more battery-efficient than setTimeout on older tablets
    requestAnimationFrame(() => {
      if (target.blur) target.blur();
      if (document.activeElement && document.activeElement.blur) {
        document.activeElement.blur();
      }
    });
  };

  // Attach to touchstart (instant) with capture: true to beat the button's own logic
  window.addEventListener('touchstart', killFocus, { passive: true, capture: true });
  
  console.log("🤖 Android Focus Fix active.");
})();

[sleek ridge]

What a pain.