4 Gboard features to make Android typing faster, cleaner and less pain

Typing on a touchscreen can be frustrating, even for long-time smartphone users, with fat-finger errors, autocorrect mistakes and awkward cursor placement turning simple edits into a chore. But the problem often lies less with the hardware than with how the keyboard is configured and used.

Google’s Gboard—its virtual keyboard for Android and iOS—offers a range of built-in tools designed to speed up typing and reduce errors, including features such as swipe input, voice typing, GIF support and multilingual options. By making fuller use of those utilities, it is possible to make touchscreen typing more manageable.

Text shortcuts

One of the most effective options is Gboard’s personal dictionary, which allows users to create text shortcuts for repetitive or error-prone strings. A short trigger can be mapped to a longer entry—such as an email address, a home address or a standard message—reducing the risk of typos in critical details.

To avoid accidental expansions, the shortcuts work best when paired with distinctive combinations that are unlikely to appear in everyday writing, such as “@email” or “@address”. Because Gboard is integrated with the Android ecosystem, shortcuts added on one device can be used on another once the same Google account is signed in.

Clipboard manager

Gboard’s built-in clipboard can also help prevent the common problem of overwriting an important copied item by copying something else. Unlike the system clipboard, which typically only retains the most recent entry,

Gboard’s clipboard manager keeps a history of copied text and images from the last hour, and it allows users to pin items for later use. That can be useful for frequently reused information—such as bank routing numbers, sets of hashtags or standard work responses—though it comes with a caution: unpinned items auto-clear for security reasons, and sensitive information such as passwords should not be pinned on devices that are often left unlocked.

Text editor

For editing longer text—such as documents or extended emails—Gboard offers a text editing mode that replaces the normal keyboard with a directional pad. The layout provides arrow-key navigation for precise, single-character movement, along with dedicated buttons for selecting text and copying and pasting, giving users finer control than touch placement alone.

Spacebar cursor

For quicker corrections, Gboard also supports cursor control via the spacebar. By pressing and sliding a thumb across the spacebar, users can move the cursor through text to fix typos a few words back without switching into the full editor mode.