One of the greatest keyboards for Android phones and tablets is Gboard, often known as Google Keyboard. It’s available for free and comes pre-installed on many Android phones, especially those using standard Android. For Android phones, you may get it from the Play Store.
In the continuation of this article, we’ll tell you more about the little things and secrets, which you may not have known, and which will definitely help you in the experience of using Gboard.
How to Quickly Access Gboard Settings?
Tap the “Settings” icon in the top row of Gboard to open “Gboard Settings” or long-press the comma (,) and tap the “Settings” icon.
Alternatively, navigate to “System → Language → Input → On-Screen Keyboard → Gboard” under “Settings → System → Language → Input”.
How to Enable the Number Row?
Open the “Gboard Settings” and go to “Settings”. Turn on the “Number Row” key. You’ll see a separate row containing only the numbers at the top of the keyboard.
How to See the Numeric Keypad?
In addition to a dedicated number row, Gboard also offers a numeric keypad. This is useful if you want to enter long numbers. At the bottom, touch two buttons to go to it in the following order: the “?123” button, then the “1234” button. You’ll be getting a keypad with keys of large numbers.
How to Write Fractions and Superscripts?
Long press the number in the number row to see the available fractions as well as its additional row. Tap an item to add it. Alternatively, long-press the number and release it to quickly add its additional script.
How to Show the Emoji Key?
If you frequently type emoticons, the bonus is to have a special emoji button in the bottom row. “Gboard Settings → Settings” is where you need to enable it. Enable the “Display Emoji” key. Note that when the emoji key is enabled, the language change key won’t be displayed and vice versa.
How to See Popular and Recent Emojis?
Gboard can display recently and frequently used emojis on the keyboard layout, provided its setting is enabled. go to “Gboard Settings → Emoji, Stickers and GIFs” to do this. Provide the necessary keys.
How to Search for Emojis, GIFs, and Stickers?
Another way to find emojis, stickers, or GIFs on Gboard is to use its search feature. You get two types of searches on Gboard. The first allows you to search all three, e.g. emojis, stickers, and GIFs. In addition, you can search for each item separately.
Open the emoji thumbnail panel by tapping the “Emoji” icon (or icons “Sticker”, or “GIF”), then tap the “Search” icon at the bottom to search all media. To perform an individual search through any of them, tap the desired media icon (emoji, GIF, or sticker). Press the search key inside it and enter a search term.
How to Create Additional Emojis?
You can use the “Emoji Kitchen” tool to combine emojis to make your own personalized emojis. To do this, simply open the emoji thumbnail panel and type in the two emojis of your choice. You’ll see new emoji combinations in the top row. Touch the one you want to use.
How to Enable Floating or One-Handed Keyboards?
There are 3 ways by which Gboard can be exploited:
- Normal
- Floating
- One-handed
Look for the floating mode or one-handed mode icon in the Gboard’s top row to activate it. If it doesn’t appear right away, hit the 3-dot icon to expand the list, then tap “Floating” or “One-Handed Mode” to turn them on. Alternatively, you can enable or disable it by going to “Gboard Settings → Settings → One-Handed Mode”. To switch off the floating keyboard and return to conventional keyboard mode, press the floating keyboard icon. When utilizing the one-handed mode, tap the expansion icon to switch it off.
How to Change the Dimensions of the Gboard?
By navigating to “Gboard Settings → Settings → Keyboard Height”, you can adjust Gboard smaller or larger to fit your needs. Choose the appropriate height from the drop-down menu.
Turning the Sound and Vibration On/Off?
Whether you prefer the sound of a keystroke and touching feedback, Gboard offers an option for both. Go to “Gboard Settings → Settings”. Enable the “Push-button sound” and “Haptic feedback on keypress” keys. Once enabled, you can adjust the volume and strength of the vibration.
How to Write Symbols Quickly?
Symbols are usually typed by using the “?123” key on Gboard to bring up the symbol keyboard. The symbols are also visible above each letter on the keyboard. Long press the letter to enter the attached symbol.
If you can’t type symbols this way, go to “Gboard Settings → Settings”. Scroll down to the “Long press for symbols” key and turn it on. Furthermore, you can press and hold the dot key (.) for quick access to popular symbols. Similarly, long-press the dot key (.) while typing the URL for entering .com, .in, etc.
How to Use Gesture Typing?
If you like typing by moving your finger, Gboard offers typing with gestures. For laymen, typing gestures requires you to swipe your finger across the letter in a word to type it instead of manually pressing each key.
Go to “Gboard Settings → Glide Typing” and enable the “Enable Glide Typing” key. You can also show or hide a trace of movement. Furthermore, you can delete words by scrolling to the left of the “Delete” key. This makes the writing process faster because you don’t have to remove each letter individually. Turn on the “Enable gesture delete” key to activate this feature.
How to Use Space Bar as Trackpad?
It’s often difficult to navigate large sections on a mobile device. In such cases, a space bar can be used to navigate through the text. To move the cursor, simply swipe right or left on the space bar. But before you can use it, go to “Gboard Settings → Glide Typing” and turn on “Enable Gesture Cursor Control”.
How to Use Pointer Control?
In addition to the space bar, Gboard offers a dedicated panel for cursor movement. Tap the “<I>” icon in the top row of the Gboard or below the 3-dot icon to open the cursor control screen. Use single arrows to scroll right, left, up, or down the text. Similarly, tap the arrows with the ribbon to move the cursor to the beginning or end of the text. You can also select text and copy and paste it.
How to Create Shortcuts for Words?
If you enter certain big words quite often, you can create shortcuts for them on Gboard. For example, Ridzeal Is Informative could have an “RII” shortcut. Whenever you type “RII”, Gboard will suggest “Ridzeal Is Informative” in the suggestions bar. Touch it to enter text. Go to “Gboard settings → Dictionary → Personal dictionary” and select your language to create shortcuts. You’ll see all existing shortcuts. Touch the “+” icon at the top. Enter the word and its shortcut in the available text fields. Check again and the shortcut will be saved. Also, learn how to create shortcuts in SwiftKey.
How to Add and Change Languages and Layouts?
Gboard allows you to type in multiple languages and use different types of layouts. Go to “Gboard Settings” and then to “Languages” to add a new language. Tap the pen icon at the top to delete or change the order of the language.
Select a language from the list. You can use the search icon at the top to quickly find the language you want. You’ll then be prompted to select a keyboard layout (QWERTY, Handwriting, QWERTZ, AZERTY, PC, etc.) for that particular language. You can also enable multi-lingual typing on the same screen. To switch between languages, press and hold and select the desired language.
How to Use the Clipboard in Gboard?
Gboard comes with a native clipboard in addition to the usual Android clipboard. Any text or image you copy will appear in the Gboard clipboard, where you can quickly paste it. Activating the clipboard is done via “Gboard Settings → Clipboard”. You should also enable the ability to display recent screenshots in the clipboard.
Furthermore, Gboard will automatically reveal useful information such as addresses and phone numbers from copied text and display them in separate tabs on the suggestion bar. This is very useful because you don’t have to remove additional information when pasting text. To use this feature, enable “Show items such as addresses/phone numbers within recently copied text” in the clipboard settings. To access the clipboard, click on the clipboard icon in the top row of the Gboard.
In general, clipboard items will be automatically deleted after one hour. However, you can pin items so that Gboard doesn’t delete them. To do this, touch and hold an item and select “Pin” from the menu.
How to Translate Text?
Gboard includes another useful feature that allows you to translate text directly within the keyboard application. Tap the “Translate” icon below the 3-dot icon in the top row of the Gboard. Enter the text and select the language you want to translate into.
How to Create a Custom Theme?
Gboard offers a wide range of themes that you can apply with just one touch. But if you want to use a custom photo as your Gboard wallpaper, like your own photo, you can do it. Go to “Gboard Settings → Theme”. Touch the large “+” button. Choose a photo of your choice and follow the on-screen instructions to create your own custom theme.
How to Add or Remove Key Borders?
If you don’t like the key borders, you can easily turn them off. Go to “Gboard Settings”, then touch “Themes” to do so. Touch the theme you want to use. Turn off the key next to “Key borders” and tap “Apply”.
How to Delete Gboard History?
You can easily remove learned words and data from Gboard’s history in case you share your phone with, say, your child and you don’t want them to accidentally type something you typed before, such as “top casinos in Nigeria”, and visit the websites you visited. Touch “Gboard Settings” and then go to “Advanced”. The next action is tapping “Delete learned words and data”.
How to Turn Autocorrect On or Off?
Go to “Gboard Settings”. Look for “Text correction” and tap it. Scroll down until you reach the “Corrections” section and turn the “Autocorrect” option on/off. Alternatively, you can leave auto-correction enabled and also enable the option below, which will allow you to “Undo autocorrect at gesture”.
That would be all for now. Now you can go back to your messaging app and we believe these tips, little things, and secrets will help you and you’ll learn more in regard to user experience.
