Ever wondered what all the fuss is about with Google’s Nexus devices? Well, if you’ve got an Android phone or tablet you can now take a peek into the world of stock Android by downloading the new Google Keyboard app from the Play Store.
That’s right, Google has bundled the keyboard from stock Android and its various nifty features into a free app that can now be downloaded and used on many Android devices. You’re pretty much treating your fingers to the Nexus experience, which by our reckoning is a great thing.
Google Keyboard features Gesture Typing, a feature which was added in Android Jelly Bean and is similar in functionality to the likes of Swype and Swiftkey. Rather than individually tapping in letters to build words and sentences you keep your finger on the screen and glide between letters. This process is made even easier by next word suggestions and which appear above the keyboard as you type and so it’s pretty easy to up the speed of your texting.
Current word completions also means that Google Keyboard can learn your typing habits and complete your words for you as you type them, which again cuts time when it comes to bashing out an email or text in double quick time.
Dictionaries for 26 languages are available and thanks to the magic of the Google account, if you use an Android smartphone and tablet, your saved words, spellings and typing habits will be synchronised across devices. Finally, you have voice typing which does exactly what it says on the tin; hit the microphone in the bottom left corner of the keyboard and dictate your text by voice.
Google Keyboard is available from the Play Store now as a free download and is compatible on any Android smartphone or tablet running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and above.