Do you use your smartphone for sending emails, posting a status on Facebook, or editing word files on the go? Well, I do. And there are many others like me who make use of their smartphone to carry out tasks which otherwise would require a computer. Smartphones come in varied display sizes, ranging from 4-inch to all the way up to 6-inch and a little more. However, devices which have a screen size of 5-inch and higher are generally called phablets (portmanteau of the words phone and tablet).
While phablets are good for gaming, multimedia consumption and even typing. They really get annoying when you try to type on them using one hand. If you are the one with smaller hands, then phablets are just not for you when it comes to using such big devices with one hand. While many devices nowadays come with one-hand mode, there are some devices which don’t. If you are the one with small hands and find it difficult to type stuff with one hand, you can enable one hand mode on Google Keyboard to make ease things up. We show you how to enable hand mode on Google Keyboard. Read on.
How to enable one hand mode on Google Keyboard
Step 1: Update the Google Keyboard app installed on your device. Make sure you are running the latest version of Google Keyboard.
Step 2: Go to Settings > Language & input and tap on ‘Google Keyboard‘ in the ‘Keyboard & input methods’.
Now tap on ‘Preferences‘ and then ‘One handed mode‘.
Upon tapping on ‘One handed mode’, you will be presented with three options – Disable, Right handed mode and Left handed mode. Depending on your preference choose the mode you will be comfortable with. I type with right hand so I chose ‘Right handed mode’.
Alternate Method to enable one hand mode on Google Keyboard
Instead of doing all the steps mentioned above, you can enable one hand mode on Google Keyboard on the fly as well. Just long press the forward slash key and two icons will pop up. Tap on the icon which shows a device.
Sometimes when the forward slash is not visible, you can long press the comma key and icon with device will appear. Tap on it.
When the one hand mode is enabled, you can easily switch between right hand mode and left hand mode by tapping on the arrow key present at the corner of the keyboard. You can also disable the one hand mode by tapping on the full screen icon present above the arrow.
Now that you know how to enable one hand mode on Google Keyboard, you can easily type with one hand when you are typing something on a big device or just want to type with one hand.
Also check out our tutorial on How to add a number row in Google Keyboard. And for more, just head on to our ‘How-To Guides‘ section.
