The Google native keyboard alternative, Google Keyboard, has received a significant update today that brings several improved features along with the standard bug fixes. If you haven’t tried Google Keyboard, it is a free download and is a great alternative keyboard to those built into many ROMs of devices out there. It allows for swipe typing (drag your finger across the letters to spell a word) and has auto completion – a feature that is significantly improved in this update. The new version is, wait for it, 4.1.22063.1974169 for those keeping score at home and for those who like large build numbers. 🙂
This update has several key improvements which will benefit all users of Google Keyboard. First is the improve accuracy for word completions and gesture typing. Second, Google Keyboard now learns from your input instantly so will get increasingly better suggestions for word completions over time. This is particularly important if you type a lot of business specific or industry specific
Google Keyboard for Android
terms. It will take a while for the app to get it but this update should improve that time-to-learning.
Another update is the Gesture auto-completion. This allows you to complete a word before you have complete the gesture of writing that word on the keyboard.
Along with these improvements in using Google Keyboard, the app has also improved the sync settings of your user history across devices to improve suggestions. That means that if you use the app on both your phone and your tablet, the suggestions and learnings of the app will sync across them. Then, of course, there are the normal bug fixes and stability improvements that we come to expect with every update. One interesting note in the release notes is that Google has specifically called out battery improvements.
