How To Change Your Android Phone’s Keyboard (And Why You Should)
Using our phone’s keyboard — whether in messages or on websites — became a whole lot simpler once the technology moved away from physical keypads to touch screens. Remember having to press a single numerical key multiple times just to type out one specific letter? Well, now we just use a digital keyboard (with most of the necessary keys available at once) instead.
As handy as it can be to use a digital keyboard for social media apps, messaging, emails, and so on through our smartphones, the default options aren’t ideal for everyone. Anything from the general layout, font size, functionality, or a preference for something other thanQWERTY.
Not every Android phone comes with the same default keyboard, either, so if you change from something like a Pixel to a Galaxy, you can expect a somewhat different layout along with other changes. Also, not all defaultAndroid keyboardssupport swipe typing, which means you’ll have to switch to something else if you want to utilize that particular function. Fortunately, there is an easy way to customize your regular keyboard or install a new one that meets your preferences.
Customizing Gboard
If you own a Google phone (which uses Gboard), here’s how to get started on a Google phone with Gboard:
You can also use other keyboard settings to control whether or not the emoji menu can be accessed with a single button press, turn on “glide typing” (swipe typing) or “voice typing,” adjusting your own personal dictionary (namely adding words you don’t want autocorrect to step in for), and so on. All you have to do is decide what you do and don’t want.
Customizing the Samsung Keyboard
If you’re using a Samsung phone, the process is a bit different, and the menus aren’t laid out exactly the same, but many of the same customization options in Gboard can also be found here.
Even with all those customization options, it still might not be enough for what you want or need from your Android keyboard. At this point, it’s time to install a different one entirely.
Setting up a new keyboard
When all else fails — or at least doesn’t quite meet your expectations or requirements — it’s time to install a different keyboard. Once you find a third-party keyboard (of which there are many, so take your time and look over all your options and check the user reviews) you like on the Google Play Store; it’s time to make the change.
After this initial setup for either type of phone, you can quickly switch between your available keyboards by tapping the keyboard icon in the bottom-right corner of the currently on-screen, and then selecting the keyboard you want to change to.
