Gboard for Android is rolling out a new Flick keys shortcut that lets you quickly enter numbers and symbols with a swipe down.
To enable, go to Gboard Settings > Preferences > Shortcuts for “Flick keys to enter symbols: Touch a key and pull download to enter its hinted symbol.”
For example, you can swipe down on Q, W, E, R, T, Y, U, I, O, or P for 1-0, with the number in question briefly replacing the letter inside the key in a subtle slide down animation.
This works best if you enable “Touch & hold keys for symbols” just above. This shows corner/hinted symbols for the next two lines of letters.
This might take some time to adjust to as it’s pretty easy to accidentally trigger glide typing if your finger leaves the rectangular boundary of the letter. I might keep using the long-press shortcut to access numbers.
“Flick keys to enter symbols” is disabled by default, and looks to be widely rolled out with Gboard 16.2, which is the current stable release.
More on Gboard:
- Gboard now lets you hide the period and comma keys
- Gboard rolls out its own keyboard ‘Font size’ setting
- Google brings Gboard’s AI writing tools to everyone
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