Use onscreen keyboard

You have two options for entering text: type one letter at a time (multi-touch typing) or slide your finger through all the letters in a word using one continuous motion (glide typing). Both options are always available; start typing either way and switch whenever you like. As you type, your keyboard predicts words for you to select, making typing fast and accurate. Spell check gets rid of any typos and lets you add words to your personal dictionary.

Open and close keyboard

To open the keyboard, just touch an area where you can enter text or numbers.

To close the keyboard so you can see other parts of the screen, touch .

TipIf you installed other keyboards, you'll see next to the navigation buttons when you're typing. To switch to a different keyboard, touch .

Type special characters

Touch & hold a key to see related special characters. For example:

  • Touch & hold . to see other punctuation marks.
  • Touch & hold e to see é and 3.
TipTo insert a period followed by a space, touch the spacebar twice quickly.

Capitalization

To type in ALL CAPS, touch twice, quickly, so you see . Touch it once more to turn ALL CAPS off.

To change capitalization of a word you've already typed:

  • Select the word and touch to capitalize the first letter.
  • Select the word and touch twice to make it ALL CAPS.

Use text correction

When you're typing, you'll see a list of possible words above the keys. Touch a word in the list to insert it in your text.

To turn suggestions off, turn auto-correction off, or adjust other keyboard settings:

  1. Go to Settings > Language & input > Virtual keyboard.

  2. Touch Google Keyboard > Text correction.
  3. Turn options off or on.
TipFor quick access to keyboard settings, touch & hold the comma key and drag it to .

Use glide typing

When you're using glide typing, you can:

  • Type a word. Drag your finger over the letters in the word.
  • Delete words. Drag left slowly from to select a word or string of words, then lift your finger to delete.
  • Enter apostrophes in common words. Drag through the letters and the apostrophe is automatically inserted.
  • Add a space. There's no need to use the space bar. Just lift your finger and start the next word.

Check spelling

Spell check is always on. To spell check your text:

  1. After you're done typing, review your text; misspelled words (and words not in your dictionary) are underlined in red.

  2. Touch an underlined word:

    • If the word is spelled correctly, touch Add to dictionary.
    • If the word is misspelled, select the correct word from the list of suggestions or touch Delete and type the correction.