In the midst of all the news surrounding Android M, let’s not forget that it’s still “update Wednesday” and that means there was bound to be some applications getting an update from Google. In this case, the Google Keyboard is one of those apps and if you haven’t received the update yet you can download the apk from us here. You can of course always wait for the update to hit your device normally which shouldn’t be too long of a wait since it’s already near end of day. Keep in mind though that app updates can sometimes take a few days before they hit all devices for the users who have the apps installed.
This update isn’t all about bug fixes and improvements although those are definitely part of the mix as they are with many app updates from just about any developer. If you use Google’s own homegrown keyboard as your typing tool of choice, you might be happy to learn that they have added in at least one new feature along with the general improvements and overall stability of the input method. Personal dictionary sync comes to Google Keyboard in this latest update which is version 4.1, allowing users to sync their personal dictionary of commonly used words and vocabulary that Google Keyboard has learned across devices. With your personal dictionary being backed up to Google servers, typing with Google Keyboard on multiple devices should be much simpler than it was before.
Along with the new cross-device sync option, Google has also made it possible to access emojis from physical keyboards by using the ALT key to bring up the list of emojis that are accessible, then users can select their desired emoji by navigating around the list with the arrow keys and hitting enter. Google has also removed the option to set varying levels of aggressiveness to the correction of text when you’re typing and has transformed it into a simple on/off toggle option. You can either have it, or not. If you used the phrase input as part of the gesture typing in Google Keyboard, you can kiss that option goodbye as Google has removed it from the keyboard in this version update.