My nephew can type with his thumbs on his new Android phone faster than I could ever type on my physical keyboard on a desktop computer. And he is not the only one – looks like all the teenagers have trained themselves to twiddle their thumbs fast and type on the small screen handheld devices. I personally hold the phone in my left hand and then use my right hand’s forefinger to type slowly. There are some others who can hold the phone in just one hand and still can type pretty well.
Google has made it easier for these people who love to do everything in their phones with just one hand. They have released an updated version of the Google Keyboard app for Android that has an option to switch the one-handed mode. This one-handed mode allows for easy typing if you are holding the device in just one hand and using the thumb of the same hand to do all of your typing.
Here is how you can enable the one-handed mode in Google Keyboard:
- Launch the Google Keyboard app from the app drawer, this will show you the Google Keyboard settings.
- Choose Preferences from the Google Keyboard settings list.
- Tap on One-handed mode option which appears on the top of the preferences list.
- You can choose to switch the left-handed mode, right-handed mode or disable the one-handed mode altogether. The left-handed mode is for the times when you are holding the phone in the left hand, the right-handed mode when you are holding the phone in the right hand and so on.
- Now if you use the Google Keyboard in any app, it will show the new arrangement of keys for easy use with just one hand.
An alternative approach, and much easier one, is to long-tap on the “Enter” key and it will display two options – one to switch the one-handed mode and another to display the emoji. You can then tap on the left or right arrows in the one handed mode to switch back and forth between the left-handed and right-handed modes.
Conclusion: If you want to twiddle away with your thumb just with one hand on your Android phone, then you can make use of the new one-handed mode of the Google Keyboard. Previously, only iPhone users could enjoy a similar functionality in their smartphones, but now Android lovers can also have one-handed modes.