Whether the keyboard is one of the tools or functions What do we use the most on our phones? It’s no secret: we use it to write messages, emails, the address of a web page in the browser and for many other things. Any tips or shortcuts that improve the keyboard experience are always welcome.
The Android keyboard, especially the Google keyboard, is extremely capable and versatile. It’s superior to the iPhone’s keyboard, although that also does some things very well. The keyboard on Android has tools like the clipboard that make my daily life easier, and a good selection of functions always at your fingertips. And I still discover very useful hidden tips.
The secret “123” button shortcut: hold it down
When you open the on-screen keyboard, it takes up a considerable portion of the screen space. Around a third of the screen becomes the keyboard
That is why the keyboard is divided into two -or three- screens: one with letter keys (the typical keyboard in QWERTY format) and two screens with access to symbols. To switch from one to the other, you have to press a button: ‘123’.
By pressing this button, the screen switches from the alphabetical keyboard to the numeric and symbolic keyboard, and if you want to access the second screen with even more symbols, you must press a second buttonmarked as ‘=\<' which is above '123' (which is renamed to 'ABC' when changing keyboard screens).
The numeric and symbolic keys are not always visible to make the keyboard more compact
But did you know that It is possible to save by pressing all these buttons? Yes, there is a shortcut on the Android keyboard which is active by default and which essentially takes advantage of the swipe function, or the famous Slide. All you need to do is hold down the “123” button.
Al hold down ‘123’, the second screen appears keyboard, which includes numbers and symbols, and we have two options to use the keyboard faster and more efficiently:
- Press and hold the “123” button and, with another finger, tap the desired number or symbol
- Drag the same finger with which we pressed “123” to the number or symbol we want to write
In fact, this shortcut works so well that even it is possible to access even more symbols. After holding down the “123” button, we can long press any button on the second keyboard that appears on the screen to access more symbols. Another way to do this is to slide the same finger with which we pressed the “123” button and hold it on another button to display the menu with more options, as shown in the image below above.
It may seem very simple, but those of us who constantly use our cell phones on a daily basis, both for personal and professional purposes, are always looking for ways to save time and, above all, get more usage. dynamic. of our cell phones. . It’s faster and more efficient to hold down one finger to type a few numbers than having to tap multiple times, especially if it’s something you do all the time.
Once you get used to using this shortcut, there’s no going back, or at least that’s my experience. Android is full of these little tricks and sometimes little-known gestures that can make our lives easier and save us precious time that we will accumulate and can use to do more things, or have more free time to watch another episode of this A Netflix series that hooked us.
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