Android's default keyboard hits version 5.0. Brings tons of new features.

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2016-05-05 15:29

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The Google Keyboard for Android just got a major update. Version 5.0 brings a ton of user-requested features and customization options.

     

The new warm welcome screens.



One of the best new addition is the fine cursor control. Just drag your finger along the spacebar to move the cursor between letters.


 

Drag your finger along the spacebar for fine cursor control.


There's a similar "delete word" gesture that works by dragging a finger from the backspace key to the left. Each letter crossed over will highlight the previous word, and releasing your finger will delete the selection.


 

Drag left from the delete key to delete entire words. Dragging to "M" will highlight and delete one word, dragging to "N" will delete two words, etc.

There's also a new "one-handed mode" that shrinks the keyboard to the left or right side of the screen—a welcome feature for users with large screened devices. A few buttons have been redesigned, and now there's an easy way to bring up a number keypad layout.


 

There are new "one-handed" modes and an easy-to-access number keypad.


Words can be deleted from the dictionary via a slick drag and drop interface—just long press on a suggestion and drag it to the new trashcan icon to toss the word (or erroneously-saved typo) down the memory hole.

 

Don't need a word anymore? Just long press on the suggestion and drag it to the trashcan.

The update brings new customization options, too. Users can control the height of the keyboard and toggle key outlines. The "Material Light" and "Material Dark" themes are still here, but the old school KitKat-era "Holo" themes have been removed.


 

There are now five different keyboard heights.
 
Key outlines or no key outlines? You decide.

Google added a new opt-in message for the cloud-based personalized learning, but we're not sure the feature has actually changed. The old descr iption of "Learn from Google apps and services and your typed data to improve suggestions" does not sound significantly different from the new phrasing "Automatically share snippets of what and how you type in Google apps to improve Google Keyboard." The new opt-in message is a lot more in-your-face, though, which should lead to more people signing up to send their typing to Google.


 

This is the new opt-in message for the cloud learning component. We're not sure anything has actually changed though.


The new keyboard should eventually filter out to everyone via the Play Store, but for the impatient sideloaders out there some builds of the latest version are already on APKMirror.

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