I will admit it: I’ve spent far an excessive amount of time tapping, swiping, and customarily simply ogling Gboard on Android. Hey, what can I say? We have gotten actually shut through the years.

It might seem to be an unhealthy obsession to some (hello, honey!), nevertheless it actually is not not fairly as loopy as you’d suppose. In spite of everything, for us Android-adoring animals, Gboard is the gateway to gettin’ stuff accomplished on our fashionable cellular gadgets — and as anybody who reads Android Intelligence frequently is aware of, it is virtually overflowing with out-of-sight time-savers.

Gboard is not not the solely keyboard choice you’ve got acquired on Android, after all, however I would argue it is the very best all-around contender for many common organisms — given its ease of use, its tight integration with helpful Google providers, and its many beneficial shortcuts for sooner and extra environment friendly textual content enter.

However man, lemme inform ya: For all of the limitless hours I’ve spent observing that quirky QWERTY keyboard, I would by no means earlier than seen one particular invisible little bit of intelligence lurking inside the Gboard Android app — one thing that may make tapping out textual content in your telephone even simpler, as soon as you set your finger on the chance and notice it is current.

I simply stumbled onto it this week, actually, and it genuinely made my jaw drop. Let’s have a look at if it offers you that very same form of “aha!” second, we could?

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My Gboard Android revelation

The Gboard Android epiphany of which we converse all comes down to at least one tiny button on that on-screen keyboard of yours — one you in all probability do not give an excessive amount of thought to on a day-to-day foundation: the standard ?123 key.

JR

Looks as if a easy sufficient button, proper? You’d suppose. However here is what I’ve found about that unassuming quantity/character entry key: Its operate really adjustments primarily based by yourself private keyboard-using patterns.

Sounds wacky, I do know, however follow me on this: If I faucet the ?123 key on Gboard on my telephone proper now, it takes me to a num-pad interface with a number of particular characters round it. See?

JR

However now watch this: If I faucet the !?# key inside that interface (a key that I am fairly positive is pronounced “WHAT THE WHAT?!“), I change over from the num-pad to a extra conventional keyboard-like format — with a horizontal row of numbers on the prime after which a complete slew o’ particular characters in all the opposite key positions.

JR

And that leads us to our grand discovery: The Gboard Android app really remembers if you happen to final used that interface or the num-pad setup — and each time you hit that ?123 key, it robotically takes you to whichever interface you most lately accessed.

Wild, proper? So right here it’s in motion. Since I simply pulled up the extra conventional keyboard-like numbers-and-characters display screen, look what occurs the subsequent time I hit ?123 from the primary keyboard display screen:

JR

See? Gboard takes me proper to that interface as an alternative of the num-pad. It remembers what you final used and really adjustments the operate of the ?123 key to match it!

So at this level, if I faucet the 1234 key inside that setup to change again to the num-pad, then the following time I hit the ?123 key from the primary Gboard display screen, Gboard will take me there — to the num-pad — as an alternative.

Whoa.

And what’s particularly neat concerning the keyboard’s reminiscence on this space is that it will really persist even after you restart your telephone. Strive it out for your self and see:

• Pull up the Gboard keyboard wherever in your Android telephone (by tapping on any clean textual content subject in any app or an search field you see).
• Faucet that ?123 key and bear in mind which display screen it takes you to.
• Now faucet both the !?# key, if you happen to’re within the num-pad view, or faucet the 1234 key from the numbers-and-characters display screen, to change to the different out there view.

Received it? Good. Now restart your telephone, if you would like, then make your manner again to the primary Gboard keyboard view and faucet ?123 once more. Throw in a “hocus pocus,” if you happen to’re feelin’ merry, and you must see that the keyboard remembers which number-related interface you final used and takes you proper to it — regardless of how a lot time has handed.

This is what’s particularly fascinating about that, too: Gboard’s reminiscence of your last-used number-screen desire does not solely have an effect on what occurs once you faucet that ?123 button. It additionally impacts what occurs once you swipe up from it.

With the numbers-and-characters view energetic, swiping up from ?123 offers you a straightforward option to entry any quantity or character in that space — in addition to extra particular characters which are lurking beneath the first choices. See?

JR

For those who’ve accessed the num-pad extra lately, swiping up from ?123 takes you to that view and allows you to shortly entry any quantity or character there by dragging your finger onto it after which letting go — like this:

JR

All you’ve got gotta do is resolve which association is extra helpful for you, then do not forget that Gboard successfully has an invisible setting that allows you to decide between these two paths.

Now that you know the way to manage it, the facility is in your valuable little fingertips — and a wiser, speedier Android typing expertise custom-catered to your individual private typing fashion is true there and ready to be embraced.

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