Google Keyboard continues to get to more advanced customization features, with the most recent version bringing the option to change the keyboard’s height (among other tweaks). If you’ve ever thought “man, I could type so much faster if this keyboard were just a bit bigger” or “I’d love to see a little more of the screen, this keyboard is just too tall!” this is a tip for you.
The first thing you’ll want to do is jump into the keyboard’s settings by long-pressing on the key to the left of the space bar. This key will change according to what app the keyboard is opened in—for example, it’s a comma in Messenger or other texting apps, a backslash in the Chrome address bar, an “at sign” (@) in email text fields—so on and so forth. Thus, the easiest way to define this key is “the one to the left of the space bar.” Yeah, long-press that.
Once you release it, a small popup menu will appear with a couple of options—just tap “Google Keyboard settings.”
In the settings menu, tap the “Preferences” option.
There are quite a few useful (and new!) options in this menu, but the one we’re looking for is “Keyboard height.” It’s almost like that makes sense, isn’t it?
There are five different height options, which are selected by using the slider: Short, Mid-short, Normal, Mid-tall, and Tall. I like to see more content and less keyboard, so I keep mine set to “Small.” If you’re on a device with a smaller screen, however, that may make it too small. Go ahead and play with this option a bit to see what best suits you.
For reference, however, here is a look at how Small compares to Tall. It’s pretty dramatic.
Once you’ve found the ideal height, just back out of the Settings menu. That’s pretty much it.
This is, in my humble opinion, one of the best and easiest things you can do to improve typing accuracy. If the keyboard is too small (or you have overly large thumbs), then you’re bound to make mistakes. On the other hand, if the keyboard is too big, it can slow you down because the keys are spaced farther apart than you’d like. This is the spiritual war of modern man. Fortunately, Google is on our side.
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