10 Samsung Keyboard Tips to Improve Your Typing Experience
All Galaxy smartphones feature the Samsung Keyboard app, and it receives regular updates to add new features and improve the user experience. If you use it on your smartphone, there are some tips you should know that will help you type faster, as well as some useful features you might not be aware of.
Let’s check out some of these Samsung Keyboard tips and tricks.
How to Access and Modify Samsung Keyboard Preferences
The tips we’ll be discussing below involve enabling, disabling, or modifying current keyboard preferences. These preferences are available under the Samsung Keyboard settings.
To modify these, you first need tochange your Android keyboardto set Samsung Keyboard as the default. After this, openSettingsand go toGeneral management. Tap onSamsung Keyboard settings, and here you’ll find all the keyboard features and options.
1. Adjust the Keyboard Height
Samsung allows you to change the size of the keyboard on its smartphones if you aren’t comfortable typing on it in its default height setting and would prefer the keys to be larger or smaller.
To do this, go into the Samsung Keyboard settings and selectSize and transparency. Now, drag the handles on the keyboard to increase or decrease its height. You can also shrink the keyboard’s width if you feel it’s too wide for your liking.
Once you’re satisfied with the keyboard’s height, hitDoneto save the changes.
2. Enable the Number Row for Quick and Easy Access
If you type a lot of numbers, you must enable the number row key on the Samsung Keyboard. Doing so will put all numbers in a row on top of the keyboard to give you quick access and help you type them faster.
Open the Samsung Keyboard settings on your device. SelectLayout, and on the next page, toggle on the button forNumber keys.
3. Dictate Text
For times when you’ve got your hands occupied or have to type long paragraphs, the dictation feature on the Samsung Keyboard can come in quite handy. Compared to Google’s Voice Typing feature, though, Samsung’s implementation isn’t as good—and requires clearer pronunciations for better interpretation—but it does get the job done.
To dictate text using Samsung Keyboard, bring up the keyboard and tap the microphone icon in the top bar. If it’s your first time using dictation, allow the keyboard access to the device microphone.
Now, tap on the microphone icon in the middle of the keyboard and start dictating the text. When you’re done dictating, tap the button again to stop.
If the keyboard misinterpreted some word or sentence, you can delete it and dictate it again. Alternatively, type it physically.
4. Use Swipe-to-Type to Type Faster
Swipe-to-type is one of the manyways to type faster on your Android phone. It’s available on Samsung smartphones, but for some reason, Samsung has it disabled by default.
To enable swipe-to-type on your Galaxy smartphone, scroll down on the Samsung Keyboard settings page to find theSwipe, touch, and feedbackoption. Tap on it, selectKeyboard swipe controls, and choose theSwipe to typeoption.
Once the feature is enabled, you can swipe your fingers on characters to spell them.
5. Translate Text With Ease
Samsung offers a built-in translator on its keyboard that lets you translate text between languages without having to jump in and out of a dedicated app. It’s useful when you need to translate text from your native language to another language or vice-versa.
To use it, bring up the keyboard on your Galaxy device and tap theMorebutton (with the ellipsis icon). Then, selectTranslateand set the languages between which you want to translate text.
Finally, enter the text to translate and tap theTranslatebutton on the keyboard to get the translated text on the screen.
6. Use Gestures to Undo and Redo Typing
Often, when typing on your Samsung device, there’ll be times when you’d want to undo or redo an action. With the Samsung Keyboard, you get the Cursor Control feature that lets you do this (and more) by sliding your fingers across the keyboard.
So, if you want to undo, you can swipe from right to left across the keyboard with two fingers. To redo an action, do the same from left to right. Similarly, the feature also helps you with other actions. For instance, you can slide one finger up or down the keyboard to move the cursor around.
Or, hold down theShiftkey with one finger and slide the second finger on the keyboard to select text on the screen.
7. Turn the Space Bar Into a Cursor Controller
The Cursor Control feature on the Samsung Keyboard also has another interesting application. It enables you to turn the space bar into a virtual touchpad, which you can use to move the cursor on the screen.
To do this, selectSwipe, touch, and feedbackfrom the Samsung Keyboard settings. Tap onTouch and hold space barand selectCursor control.
Now, simply touch and hold the space bar to turn it into a touchpad and slide your finger to move the cursor around.
8. Use Text Shortcuts for Faster Typing
Text Shortcuts is a nifty feature in the app. It’s kind of similar to thetext expansion feature on Macsthat helps you type your most frequently-used phrases (or anything you need to type frequently) faster.
For instance, if you need to type your address often, you can set up a text shortcut to enter it efficiently without needing to type it. You could set up the shortcut “adr”, which would then automatically expand to your full address.
To set up a text shortcut in Samsung Keyboard, selectText shortcutsunder the keyboard settings. Hit the plus (+) button in the top-right corner. Now, in theAdd shortcutpop-up box, enter the shortcut phrase in theShortcutfield. Similarly, enter the expanded phrase you need the shortcut to complete in theExpanded phrasefield. Once done, hitAdd.
Now, whenever you type the shortcut phrase and hit the space bar, it’ll automatically expand it to the complete phrase.
9. Enter Characters and Symbols Faster With Alternative Characters
In its default settings, entering symbols and characters, like @, #, etc., on the Samsung Keyboard requires you to hit the numbers/characters key and tap the character you want to enter. But if you need to do this often, there’s a better way to do it.
It requires you to enable the Alternative Characters feature, which adds a character to each of the keys. For this, go intoLayoutunder the Samsung Keyboard settings and toggle on the switch forAlternative characters.
Now, when you need to type a special character, simply press and hold the key that shows the character and select it from the pop-up menu. You can also use it to type accented characters.
10. Set Up Custom Symbols on the Keyboard
Samsung puts a bunch of characters and symbols behind the command and period keys on its keyboard. you’re able to access them by long-pressing either key and selecting a character from the pop-up menu. Plus, you also get the option to change the characters and symbols present in this menu.
To do this, head into the Samsung Keyboard settings and chooseCustom symbols. Now, tap on the character you want to replace on the virtual keyboard displayed at the top of the screen, and then tap the character you want to replace it with on the keyboard at the bottom.
Do More With the Samsung Keyboard
By tweaking the settings and enabling the features listed above, you’ll be able to make the Samsung Keyboard on your phone more functional and get it to do things it couldn’t do in its default settings.
But that’s not all; there are many more options you’re able to enable/modify on the Samsung Keyboard. For example, you can enable Grammarly for spelling and grammar correction.
New Samsung Galaxy phones have Grammarly built-in for spelling and grammar correction. Here’s how to use it—or how to disable it.
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