When you are obsessive about effectivity, like I’m, each additional second you shave off your routine completely provides up.And even in the event you aren’t a full-time productivity-seeking super-nerd, some easy changes to your mobile-tech setup can go a surprisingly great distance.One of the very best locations to provide your self a time-saving enhance is in your smartphone’s keyboard. Much as we have grown accustomed to it over time, textual content enter on a touchscreen is inherently awkward and infrequently an ergonomic catastrophe.But Google’s Gboard Android keyboard — my favourite Android keyboard app and the one I like to recommend for most individuals — has some superior superior choices for enhancing its presence and making it simpler and extra pure to make use of on your particular model of typing.Each adjustment will take you lower than a minute to make. And as soon as you determine which precise setup works finest for you, it will prevent numerous seconds all all through your day.[Psst: Love shortcuts? My Android Shortcut Supercourse will teach you tons of time-saving tricks for your phone. Sign up now for free!] Ready?Gboard Android adjustment #1: Custom keyboard heightOur first Gboard Android adjustment is the latest addition of all, and it appears to be obtainable for many Android phone-owners at this level. It’s a helpful approach to rapidly change the peak of your on-screen keyboard to make the keys bigger and extra unfold out — or, conversely, to make your entire factor take up much less of your seen house.To attempt it out and discover the just-right peak for you:
Tap on any textual content subject to make Gboard seem.
Look for the rectangle-shaped icon with arrows in its upper-left and lower-right corners within the high row of your keyboard. If you do not see it there, faucet the icon in Gboard’s upper-left nook to search out it within the full menu of choices.
Tap that icon, then use your finger to slip the highest or backside of the keyboard up or right down to make it taller or shorter.
While you are there, additionally press and maintain the icon with 4 arrows pointing outward and slide the keyboard round till it lands on a spot you want.
Be certain to faucet the checkmark icon while you’re achieved to avoid wasting your modifications.
JR
Taller, shorter. Taller, shorter. Slide, slide, slide.
Play round with the settings till you discover the peak and placement that feels most snug for you — then get pleasure from your freshly optimized Android typing expertise.Gboard Android adjustment #2: The floating keyboardThis subsequent Gboard tweak takes the thought of shifting your keyboard’s type to even larger heights. It enables you to fully detach Gboard from the underside of your display, modify its measurement in not solely peak but in addition width, and plop it kind of anyplace you need in your show. It might be supremely helpful on nearly any sort of Android gadget, however it’s particularly useful on a pill, foldable, or different large-screened contraption — the place having the keyboard in a selected space of the display can go a very great distance in making it quicker, simpler, and extra ergonomic to sort.And, similar to our final one, it is an extremely simple adjustment to drag off:
Once once more, faucet on any textual content subject subject to make Gboard seem.
This time, search for the icon that resembles a keyboard with a line beneath it — or, in the event you’d quite, a cool little robotic head — within the high row of your keyboard. And once more, in the event you do not see it there, faucet the four-square icon in Gboard’s upper-left nook to search out it within the full menu of choices.
Tap that funky ‘board-bot, then press and maintain the horizontal line on the backside of the keyboard to maneuver it anyplace in your display — and, when you let go, contact your finger to any nook of the keyboard and slide diagonally inward or outward to alter the keyboard’s measurement.
JR
Move Gboard anyplace you need — in any measurement.
If you ever determine you need to dock your keyboard again down into its default house, you may faucet that very same icon in its higher row as soon as extra — or, for an excellent quicker (and extra enjoyable!) approach to accomplish the identical factor, merely slide Gboard down till it touches the underside of your display after which let go.Good to know, no? Gboard Android adjustment #3: One-handed optimizationIf you have a tendency to carry your telephone with a single hand and kind with those self same related appendages, this subsequent Gboard adjustment is only for you.With a pair fast faucets, you may squeeze your on-screen Android keyboard over to the left or proper aspect of your display to make it even simpler to entry with whichever hand you are utilizing.Here’s the trick:
Tap on any textual content subject to summon your previous pal Gboard.
Find the icon that appears like a hand holding a square-shaped taco. (All proper, so it in all probability is not meant to be a square-shaped taco, particularly. But that is my story, and I’m stickin’ with it.) If you do not see it in Gboard’s high row, hit the icon within the keyboard’s upper-left nook to trace it down.
Once you’ve got received it in entrance of you, faucet that son-of-a-goober and faucet it good, and your keyboard will shift over to both the left or proper aspect of the display. You can then change which aspect it aligns with by tapping the left- or right-facing arrow alongside its aspect.
JR
Typing with a single hand has by no means been so easy.
And another left — at the very least, for a few of us…Gboard Android adjustment #4: The display splitterOur ultimate Gboard Android choice is restricted solely to larger-screen gadgets — tablets and foldable telephones, particularly, of their folded-out state.In these environments, now you can cut up your keyboard into separate left- and right-aligned sections for (theoretically) easier typing utilizing solely your thumbs. To attempt it:
Get Gboard in entrance of you. (You know the way.)
Look for the icon in its high row that exhibits a field with dots inside, cut up between the left and proper sides.
Tap that to change to the cut up setup — and if you wish to disable the cut up mode and return to a typical keyboard configuration, faucet that very same icon (which can present the dots not being cut up aside, at this level) once more.
JR
Gboard’s split-screen mode is divisive — however it’s as much as you to determine if you wish to use it.
And there ya have it: 4 changes to get your Android keyboard working the best way you need.Find the exact-right setup on your present gadget and private typing preferences, and watch your cellular productiveness soar.Get six full days of superior Android data with my free Android Shortcut Supercourse. You’ll be taught tons of time-saving tips on your telephone!
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