Gboard, undoubtedly, we can say it is an excellent power-packed keyboard available in the market today for both Android and iOS devices. When compared with competitors, Gboard offers a better typing experience, thanks to the close integration with Google search. Aside from the default settings, with a few Gboard tricks and tweaks, you can make the experience even better.
9 useful Gboard Tricks and Tips
Google includes all needed features to make your typing flurry. It starts with the basic grammar-corrections to then gives advanced features like Glide typing, Gif search, Emoji support; the list is still growing because Google is adding more useful things on each update. So below, I am writing some cool Gboard pro tricks and tips that you might not know very well.
1. Send Bitmoji from Gboard
Emojis are beautiful, attractive, and it let users add their emotions to just plain text. Indeed, it even more meaningful if the emojis look like themselves. Bitmoji is a social media app owned by Snapchat, allows creating emoji or expressive cartoon avatar versions of themselves.
Whatever early this year Google had brought Bitmoji to Gboard, so android users able to send their Bitmoji directly from the Gboard. You must do some setup before connecting Gboard with Bitmoji.
1. If you do not have Bitmoji yet, head to this link and install it from the play store.
2. Once you have configured the app with your charming cartoon avatar, then go to Gboard in your android device. Tap on the round smiley face icon, then tap Bitmoji.
3. You will see ‘Set Up Bitmoji’. Tap on and login to the Bitmoji app.
2. Enable Gesture Delete and Cursor Control
What you will do when deleting something from your text that you just typed with Gboard? You will use the backspace button. Instead of doing this, you can instantaneously delete the selected word by swiping the backspace from the left to right.
If you fed up with uncomfortable cursor control on your smartphones check out the hidden Gboard gesture cursor control. You are able to move the cursor by simply slide your fingers across the space bar.
3. Autocorrect Punctuations and Typo errors
With Google Gboard text corrections, you will always focus on your content, rather than spelling and punctuation mistakes often occur while typing. Gboard corrects your text from most common typo errors like misspelled words, missing space after punctuation, and capitalizing the first word of each sentence.
Gboard text corrections powered by four type settings to fix your typing instantly.
- Auto-corrections correct words while typing
- Auto-space after punctuation– It is still in beta as of now only available to US English.
- Auto-capitalization capitalizes the first word of each sentence.
- Double-space full stop to put full stop instantly when double tap on the space bar.
All these settings you can found by tapping the three-dot menu > text corrections.
4. Enable Google Contact suggestions
Gboard has the power to fetch the contact information like an email when you type someone’s name in the text. It is convenient and timesaving since you need not access their info manually from the contacts. Gboard will suggest the contact information only when you turn on it by heading into Settings > Text Correction.
5. Adjust Gboard key height
In default’s normal height, some of you occasionally might face little trouble to reach top-level keys when typing. Adjusting your Gboard keys corresponding to the length of your finger has some benefits. It lets you move your finger to each key much faster, thus, you can double typing speed.
To adjust key-height, open Gboard > Settings > Preferences > Tap on Key Board height; you will be able to set extra short to extra tall.
6. Enable Voice Typing on Gboard with Offline speech recognition
Speech to text is an excellent accessibility feature for those who are lazy about typing a long context on small mobile screens. When comparing with others, Gboard provides a powerful, much accurate voice to text features not only in the English but also in many other languages. Follow the below steps
To activate Voice Typing
1. Open Gboard, then go to settings from the three-dot menu
2. Tap on Voice Typing, enable it
3. Once turned on, a voice input key (microphone icon) placed on the keyboard to input your voice.
To add languages for Voice Typing Gboard
- Tap on Voice Typing under Gboard settings
- Tap on Languages and Select language which you want to convert to text.
To Download Offline speech recognition packages
- Open Gboard settings, then tap on Voice typing
- Tap on Offline speech recognition
- Tap on the middle option ALL; you can view all languages available to download.
7. Instant access One-Handed mode and Floating Gboard
Sometimes we might use our smartphones to respond to an urgent message while driving a car or enjoying our favorite food. The ever-increasing android phone size is the real problem when responding to a message with one hand. But it will not be a problem with Google Gboard because it has a one-handed mode, no matter you are right or left-handed.
One Hand mode shrinks down the whole keyboard to the left or right, which makes it much easier to use with one hand. You can instantly activate one-handed mode while typing by long-pressing the “,” button in the Gboard and then drag your finger to the first icon you see.
Besides one-hand mode, Google adds yet another feature to Gboard to improve the typing with huge bezel-less smartphones called Floating Keyboard. With floating mode enabled, it allows you to move the Gboard anywhere in the screen rather sticky to the bottom. You can turn on the Floating keyboard by tapping on the three-dot menu from the top selection strip.
8. Enable Clipboard Manger
Clipboard managing apps are a pretty useful timesaving tool for people who use a lot of copy-paste in their day-to-day activities. Google recognizes this and baked a clipboard manager natively into Gboard, so forget the apps, now your clipboard management is much simpler than ever.
All you need to do is tap on the three-dot menu from the top selection strip, then enable the clipboard from there.
9. Insert fractional numbers
You probably might not know Gboard allows you to put fractional numbers simpler than any other keyboard. Simply by long-pressing on the number from Gboard, you will see the list of factional numbers.
Waripping Up
In short, Gboard is a feature-rich power-packed keyboard currently available, especially for android devices. It already available in IOS, you can also try this handful of Gboard tips and tricks, however, some of them are maybe missing, but it worth trying.
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