How to Use Gboard: The Ultimate Guide

Gboard (also known as Google keyboard) is one of the best keyboards for Android phones and tablets. It’s available for free and comes preinstalled on many Android phones, especially those running Stock Android. You can install it from Play Store on any Android phone. Let’s explore how to use Gboard on Android.

Also read: Gboard vs. Samsung Keyboard vs. SwiftKey: Which Is Best?

How to Access Gboard Settings Quickly

Tap on the “Settings” icon in Gboard’s top row to open Gboard Settings or long-press the comma (,) key and tap on the Settings icon.

Alternatively, go to “Settings → System (General Management) → Language & input → On-screen keyboard → Gboard.”

Also read: How to Type Morse Code in Gboard App

How to Enable Number Row

Open Gboard “Settings” and go to “Preferences.” Turn on the “Number row” toggle. You will see a separate row containing just the numbers at the top of the keyboard.

How to View Number Pad

In addition to a dedicated number row, Gboard offers a number pad as well. It comes in handy if you want to input long numbers. To access it, tap on the “?123” key at the bottom followed by the “1234” key.

You will be greeted by a number pad with large number keys.

Also read: How to Turn Off Keyboard Sound on Android and iPhone

How to Type Fractions and Superscript

Long press a number in the number row to see the available fractions and its superscript. Tap on an item to add it. Alternatively, long-press a number and release it to add its superscript quickly.

How to Show the Emoji Key

If you type emojis often, having a dedicated emoji key in the bottom row is a bonus. To enable it, go to “Gboard Settings → Preferences.” Enable the toggle for the “Show emoji switch key.” Please keep in mind that when the Emoji key is enabled, the Language switch key won’t show and vice versa.

How to View Popular and Recent Emojis

Gboard can show recently- and frequently-used emojis on the keyboard layout, provided its setting is enabled. To do so, go to “Gboard Settings → Emojis, Stickers, & GIFs.” Enable the necessary toggles.

Also read: How to Get Samsung Keyboard Back to Normal

How to Search Emojis, GIF, and Stickers

Another way to find emojis, stickers, or GIFs in Gboard is to use its search feature. You get two types of searches in Gboard. The first one lets you search through all three of them, e.g., emojis, stickers, and GIFs. Apart from that, you can search for each item separately as well.

Open the emoji panel by tapping the Emoji, Sticker, or GIF icon, then” tap on the Search icon at the bottom to search from all media.

To conduct an individual search through any of them, tap on the desired media icon – such as Emoji, GIF, or sticker. Hit the search button inside it and enter your search term.

Tip: tap on the Clock icon to access recently-used media.

How to Make Custom Emojis

With the Emoji Kitchen feature, you can combine emojis and create unique custom emojis. To do so, simply open the emoji panel and type two emojis of your choice. You will see the new emoji combos in the top row. Tap on the one you would like to use.

Note: the custom emojis created using this method are sent as stickers and not as regular emojis. If an app doesn’t support stickers, these emojis will be added as images.

How to Enable Floating or One-Handed Keyboard Modes

Gboard can be used in the following three modes:

• Regular: normal full-screen mode.
• Floating: the keyboard can be dragged to any position on the screen.
• One-handed: makes it easy to type using one hand, as it shrinks the keyboard to one side.

To switch to a floating or one-handed mode, look for its icon in the Gboard’s top row. If it doesn’t show up, tap on the three-dot icon to expand the list, then tap on the Floating or One-Handed mode to activate them. Alternatively, go to “Gboard Settings → Preferences → One-Handed mode” to enable or disable it.

To return to the regular keyboard mode from the Floating keyboard, tap on the Floating keyboard icon to turn it off. Similarly, tap on the expand icon when using the one-handed mode to turn it off.

Also read: 5 Ways to Change the Color of a Samsung Keyboard

How to Resize Gboard

You can make Gboard smaller or taller to fit your preferences by going to “Gboard Settings → Preferences → Keyboard height.”‘ Select the required height from the list.

How to Enable or Disable Gboard Sound and Vibration

Whether or not you prefer keypress sound and haptic feedback, Gboard provides an option for both. Go to “Gboard Settings → Preferences.” Enable the toggles for “Sound on keypress” and “Haptic feedback on keypress.” Once enabled, you ca adjust the volume and vibration strength.

Tip: find out how to turn off the keyboard sound on other keyboards on Android and iPhone.

How to Type Symbols Quickly

You may typically type symbols by tapping the “?123” key on Gboard to open the symbols keyboard. You can also see the symbols above each letter on the keyboard. Long-press a letter to enter the attached symbol.

If you are unable to type symbols this way, go to “Gboard Settings → Preferences.”. Scroll down and enable the toggle for “Long press for symbols.”

Furthermore, you can long-press the period (.) key to access popular symbols quickly. Similarly, long-press the period (.) key while typing a URL to enter .com, .in, etc.

Also read: 7 of the Best Third-Party Keyboard Apps for iPhone and iPad Users

How to Use Gesture Typing

If you enjoy swipe typing, Gboard offers gesture typing. For the uninitiated, gesture typing requires you to swipe across the letters in a word to type it rather than manually press each key.

Go to “Gboard Settings → Glide typing” and enable the toggle for “Enable glide typing.” You can also show or hide the gesture trail.

Furthermore, you can delete words by sliding left from the delete key. This makes the writing process quicker, as you don’t need to remove each letter individually. Turn on the “Enable gesture delete” toggle to activate this feature.

How to Use the Spacebar as Trackpad

It’s often difficult to navigate through large paragraphs on mobile. In such cases, the spacebar can be used to navigate through the text. To move the cursor, simply swipe right or left on the spacebar. But before you can use this, go to “Gboard Settings → Glide typing” and turn on “Enable gesture cursor control.”

How to Use Cursor Control

In addition to the spacebar, Gboard offers a dedicated panel for cursor movement. Tap on the <I> icon in the Gboard’s top row or under the three-dot icon to open the Cursor control screen. Use the single arrows to move right, left, up, or down on the text. Similarly, tap on the arrows with a bar to move the cursor to the start or end of the text. You can also select the text and copy-paste it.

How to Create Word Shortcuts

If you enter certain big words quite frequently, you can create shortcuts for them in Gboard. For instance, Make Tech Easier could have the “MTE” shortcut. Whenever you type MTE, Gboard will suggest Make Tech Easier in the suggestion strip. Tap on it to enter the text.

To create shortcuts, go to “Gboard Settings → Dictionary → Personal dictionary” and select your language. You will see any existing shortcuts. Tap on the “+” icon at the top.

Tip: tap the three-dot icon to import or export existing shortcuts.

Type the word and its shortcut in the available text fields. Check back and the shortcut will be saved. Also learn how to create shortcuts in SwiftKey.

How to Add and Switch Languages and Layouts

Gboard lets you type in multiple languages and use different kinds of layouts. To add a new language, go to “Gboard Settings → Languages.” Tap on “Add Keyboard.”

Tip: tap on the pencil icon at the top to delete or reorder languages.

Select the language from the list. You can use the search icon at the top to find the desired language quickly. Next, you will be asked to choose the keyboard layout (QWERTY, Handwriting, QWERTZ, AZERTY, PC, etc.) for that particular language. Also, you can enable multilingual typing on the same screen.

Also learn how to translate handwriting into text and type Morse code using Gboard.

To switch between languages, long-press the spacebar and select the desired language.

How to Use Clipboard in Gboard

Gboard comes with a native clipboard in addition to the regular Android clipboard. Any text or image that you copy will appear in Gboard’s Clipboard, where you can paste it quickly. Go to “Gboard Settings → Clipboard” and activate the Clipboard. You should also enable the ability to show recent screenshots in the Clipboard.

Furthermore, Gboard will automatically detect useful information like addresses and phone numbers from copied text and show it in separate tabs in the suggestion bar.

This is quite useful, as you don’t need to remove extra information when pasting the text. To use this feature, enable “Show items such as addresses, phone numbers within recently copied text” under Clipboard settings.

To access the clipboard, click on the Clipboard icon in Gboard’s top row.

Generally, the clipboard items will automatically clear after one hour. However, you can pin items so that Gboard won’t delete them. For that, touch and hold an item and choose “Pin” from the menu.

Tip: find out how to sync the clipboard between your phone and PC.

How to Translate Text

Gboard includes another useful feature that allows you to translate text directly within the keyboard app. Tap on the “Translate” icon present under the three-dot icon in Gboard’s top row. Enter the text and select the language you want to translate to.

How to Create a Custom Theme

Gboard offers a wide variety of themes you can apply with just one tap. But if you want to use a custom photo as Gboard’s background, such as your own photo, you can do that.

Go to “Gboard Settings → Theme.” Tap on the big “+” button. Select a photo of your choice and follow the on-screen instructions to create your own custom theme.

How to Add or Remove Key Borders

I prefer having a keyboard with key borders. You can always turn off the key borders if you don’t like them. For that, open “Gboard Settings → Themes.” Tap on the theme you want to use. Turn off the toggle next to “Key borders” and tap on “Apply.”

How to Delete Gboard History

You can easily remove the learned words and data from Gboard’s history. Go to “Gboard Settings → Advanced” and tap on “Delete learned words and data.”

How to Turn On/Off Autocorrect on Gboard

Go to Gboard Settings. Look for “Text correction” and tap on it.

Scroll down until you reach the Corrections section and toggle on/off the Auto-correction option. Alternatively, you can leave auto-correction on and also enable the option below, which will allow you to “Undo auto-correct on backspace.”

That’s it. Now you can go back to your messaging app without having to worry that you’ll end up typing something silly.

Find out how to use a physical keyboard with an Android phone. If you are thinking about using SwiftKey, read Gboard’s comparison with SwiftKey and Samsung keyboard to decide which one is best for you.