Gboard Text Suggestions
Gboard can automatically predict & suggest next word while you type based on many algorithms including grammar, last typed word, information from the contacts and personalized suggestions from your use of Google services. Not only words but Gboard also can suggest emojis for the typed word & sentence. You can also make Gboard to block recognized offensive words and avoid those words being suggested while you type.
How to configure Gboard text suggestions
You can customize the suggestions in settings and perhaps even block the suggestion function completely also. There are six settings in the Gboard which can be customized based on your requirement.
- Open Gboard settings
- Tap Text correction under settings screen.
- On tapping, all suggestion customization options are placed below text suggestion heading under Text correction screen .
Tap Show suggestion strip to activate the suggestions function. This is an important function, if not activated any further settings will be negated. In-fact if suggestion strip is not enabled, you lose most of the important functions and Gboard will become a basic standard android keyboard. If activated suggestion strip will be displayed on top row of the keyboard layout and will be the space for placing other functions like search & more functions buttons.
Tap Next-word suggestions to activate the function. If activated, Gboard will suggest possible words from your previous type word. For example if you type the "I want", suggestion strip will display words like "to", "you", and "a" and you can tap one of the three suggested word to include in typing or even ignore the suggested words and type another word.
Tap Block-offensive words to activate the function. If activated, Gboard will not suggest any offensive words which are considered by Gboard as unsafe.
Tap Show emoji suggestions to activate the function. If activated, Gboard will display emojis in the strip box based on typed word. For example if you typed a word happy, suggestion strip would display emojis like smiley.
Tap Personalized suggestions to enable Gboard to provide personalized suggestions from your usage of Google's other apps and services like Chrome, YouTube, Gmail, etc..
Tap Suggest Contacts to allow Gboard to suggest words from contacts. This would require additional permission access request by Gboard to access your contacts. This is an optional item and you can deny if you don't want to allow Gboard to access your contacts in phone.
How to use Gboard text suggestions
To use Gboard text suggestions ensure you have Show Suggestion strip in Gboard settings. Else suggestion strip which is placed on top of the keyboard layout will not appear.
Next-word suggestions
To check whether Next-word suggestion is working, begin type a commonly used sentence like "How". The moment How and space key is pressed, Gboard considers How as first word and displays next words in the suggestion strip as "do", "to", and "are". Tapping on any of those suggested words, it immediately get entered in your typing text. If you want to type something else other those suggested words, you can ignore the strip and keep typing other words.
Show emoji suggestions
To check whether Show emoji suggestion is working, simply begin type "snake" or "bird" in keyboard. The moment you end up typing the word, immediately snake or bird emoji appears in the suggestion strip box, tapping on the emoji will immediately add that in your typing text. In short you don't even have to search emoji, as Gboard intelligently predicts it and display the emoji for quick addition to the text.
Suggest Contacts
Suggest contacts will let you suggest words from your contact list. For example if you key in first name of one your contacts in the keyboard, suggestion strip immediately shows last name in the strip bar which can be tapped and included immediately into your typing text. This is the basic advantage of allowing Gboard to access contacts, however there are many other use if you enable this option in Gboard settings.
Personalized suggestions
Enabling this option let Gboard to update learned word database in your personal dictionary, which could be shown in the suggestion strip whenever required.