How to Type Faster on Android: 5 Tips & Tricks

When it comes to typing on your Android smartphone and tablet there’s plenty of options and 3rd party keyboards which aim to improve the experience or make you faster. From Swype, Swiftkey, to even Google’s own keyboard right on the Play Store.

If you’re one of the millions that simply hunt and peck or tap with a single index finger on your smartphone, you’re doing it wrong. There’s tons of ways to type faster, be more efficient, and make the entire experience better. Below is a few tips and tricks using Google’s stock keyboard that will have you a master of the on-screen keyboard in no time.

Things like gesture typing, next-word suggestions, and even text expansion support all can make you faster when it comes to typing on a smartphone. There’s tons of little tricks and things many users don’t know, not to mention settings that allow you to customize the keyboard to your liking.

Personally I use Google’s Keyboard, as it’s extremely simple and clean without being overbearing or too in control of what you try to type. Next-word prediction like Swiftkey is great, and Google’s keyboard does it too, but sometimes it can be invasive. As a result, I turn it off which then makes typing even faster with tons of punctuation buttons above the keyboard. This means you don’t have to hit the 123 button and toggle a second set of keyboard options to find a period or question mark.

Read: How to Add Words to the Dictionary on Android

Text expansion is probably my favorite trick for any keyboard as it just makes the most sense in this digital age we live in. Why type an entire email address out our your favorite website when you can make shortcuts, known as text-expansion options. Instead of writing Gottabemobile.com to come here for news, just type GBM and the keyboard will expand that into GottaBeMobile.com as long as you’ve set up that setting. We’ll show you that and much more in the quick video below.

For text expansion head into Setting > Language & input > Keyboard settings > Personal Dictionary > and hit the + or add button and you’ll see the shortcut option. Below is what you’re looking for.

Many of you probably know to enable the keyboard to search for contact suggestions, as it’s enabled by default. In settings you can uncheck the “block offensive words” to enable the keyboard to suggest curse words, and if you want to swear on Android here’s how.

Read: How to Cut, Copy & Paste on Android

I use text expansion, cut, copy and paste, and the trick above to instantly upper case or lowercase a word instantly almost daily. These few simple and easy to learn and do tricks will make you type even faster. Then of course typing with your voice is the fastest, and make sure you head into settings and download offline speech recognition so you don’t need a good connection to type with your voice. It should also be enabled by default, otherwise head into keyboard settings and give it a toggle.

There’s plenty of 3rd party keyboards available for Android. SwiftKey is the most popular, but Google’s own option isn’t too bad either. Try these tricks yourself and you’ll be speeding along in no time.