The virtual keyboard is one of the essential parts of your smartphone experience. You rely on it for texting, creating to-do lists, drafting long LinkedIn posts and emails, and editing quick documents in Google Docs. While smartphone keyboards have evolved in recent years with auto-predictions, AI features, a clipboard, and more, you can’t escape mistakes and errors while typing on a small keyboard on glass.
Using your Android phone’s secret trackpad, you may take care of such errors without lifting a finger from the keyboard. Whether you use Gboard, Microsoft SwiftKey, or the default Samsung keyboard on thetop Samsung Galaxy phones, the built-in keyboard trackpad is readily available to serve you during text editing. Let’s check it in action.
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How to use Gboard’s secret trackpad
Google Gboard is among thebest keyboard apps on Android. It’s the default keyboard app for most Android users. Although the trackpad implementation is nowhere near as smooth as the iOS keyboard, it gets the job done with quick text editing on the go. Here’s how to use it:
Unlike the default keyboard on iPhone, Gboard doesn’t turn the entire keyboard into a trackpad. you’re able to move your fingers along the bottom bar only. The cursor reach is limited, and you can’t freely move it over an entire paragraph. You also don’t get haptic feedback or visual tweaks for an active trackpad over the spacebar.
Put aside the half-hearted trackpad implementation, Gboard is packed with cool add-ons to elevate your typing experience on Android. Read our dedicated post to learn thetop Gboard tips and tricks.
How to use Samsung Keyboard’s secret trackpad
Samsung offers a feature-rich keyboard on Galaxy smartphones and tablets. The Korean giant’s implementation is up there with Apple, and you can move the cursor anywhere on the screen.
On Gboard, you may move the cursor over one or two sentences. Samsung does a better job here. If your Samsung Keyboard doesn’t turn into a trackpad using the steps above, tweak an option in the settings.
From now on, your Samsung Keyboard will act as a trackpad when you long-press on the spacebar. If you want to dig more, check our separate guide tocustomize the Samsung keyboard on your phone or tablet.
Microsoft SwiftKey is known for astute next-word predictions, and it has been in the news due to a recentBing Chat AI integration(powered by ChatGPT).
SwiftKey turns the entire keyboard into a trackpad. You can glide your finger to the top or bottom to move the cursor between paragraphs.
Make typos a thing of the past on Android
Android keyboards have done a decent job of integrating the trackpad into the spacebar. If you are a Samsung user who prefers Google’s keyboard, read our dedicated guide toreplace the default keyboard with Gboard on your Galaxy phone.
