When it comes to typing on your Android smartphone and tablet, there are many options and 3rd party keyboards that aim to improve the experience or make you faster. From Swype, quick switcheven Google’s own keyboard game store.
If you’re one of the millions who hunt and peck or flick with a single index finger on your smartphone, you’re doing it wrong. There are tons of ways to type faster, be more efficient, and make the whole experience better. Below are a few tips and tricks using Google’s stock keyboard that will have you mastering the onscreen keyboard in no time.
Things like gesture typing, next word suggestions, and even text expansion support can make you faster when typing on a smartphone. There are tons of little tricks and things that many users don’t know, not to mention the settings that let you customize the keyboard to your liking.
Personally, I use Google’s Keyboard because it’s overly simple and clean, without being overwhelming or putting too much control of what you’re trying to type. Next word prediction like Swiftkey is great, and Google’s keyboard does just that, but it can be invasive at times. As a result, I turn it off and make typing even faster with tons of punctuation buttons above the keyboard. This means you don’t have to press the 123 button to find a period or question mark and change a second set of keyboard options.
Text expansion is probably my favorite trick for any keyboard, because it makes the most sense in this digital age we live in. Why type an entire email address on our favorite website when you can make shortcuts known as text expansion options. Instead of typing gottabemobile.com here to get news, type GBM and the keyboard will expand it to Moyens I/O.com as long as you set this. We’ll show you this and much more in the quick video below.
For the text expansion header Setting > Language and input > Keyboard settings > Personal Dictionary > Press the + or add button and you will see the shortcut option. Below is what you’re looking for.
Many of you probably know how to enable the keyboard to search for contact suggestions as it is enabled by default. In settings, you can uncheck “block offensive words” to have the keyboard suggest abusive words, and that’s it if you want to swear on Android.
It’s text expansion, cut, copy and paste, and I use the above trick almost every day to instantly capitalize or lower a word. These few simple and easy to learn and do tricks will get you typing faster. Then of course typing with your voice is the fastest and make sure you go into settings and download offline speech recognition so you don’t need a good connection to type with your voice. It should also be enabled by default otherwise go to keyboard settings and give it a toggle.
There are many 3rd party keyboards available for Android. SwiftKey is the most popular, but Google’s own option isn’t too bad either. Try these tricks yourself and you’ll be on your way in no time.
