How I replaced 4 popular Android apps with built-in Gboard features

For years, after setting up a new Android phone and downloading essential apps, I installed a few additional apps to help with tasks like text translation. Although these apps served me well, I stopped using them long ago, all thanks to Google.

Gboard — the default keyboard app on most Android phones — has received plenty of useful features over the years, some of which can handle tasks that once required using a dedicated app. Here’s a look at those Gboard features and the apps they have replaced for me.

Google Translate

I often text my family in our native language, and the Google Translate app has made it incredibly easy to do that all these years. Any time I need a message translated into my native language, I open the app and type it in English. Google Translate then returns the translated message, which I can copy and paste into the messaging app.

This workflow works well when you need to translate messages a couple of times, but it isn’t ideal for quick back-and-forth conversations. So, when I learned about Gboard’s built-in Google Translate feature, I switched to it right away. It eliminates the need to switch between apps and gives me translations right inside the app I’m chatting in, so I can focus better on my replies.

To use Gboard’s Google Translate feature, go to the app where you want to input the translated message. Bring up the keyboard, tap the feature menu (the square icon in the top-left corner of the Gboard toolbar), and select the Translate tool. Select your input and output languages and start typing your text in the field that says Type here to translate. You’ll see the translated version of your message in the text field, ready to be sent.

Convert Case

We’ve all been there: you typed a few words or sentences for an email, message, or note, only to realize they aren’t styled properly. Now, an easy solution would be to fix the incorrectly styled letters or delete the whole word and type it again. But what if you need to do it for a bunch of words or sentences?

Apps like Convert Case, which let you convert text to different cases, come in handy in such situations. I’ve used it and a few similar apps for a long time too, until I found out that Gboard has a nifty trick for changing text capitalization.

Select the word or a group of words whose capitalization you want to change. Bring up the keyboard and tap the Shift key (the one with an upward-pointing arrow). The first tap changes the selection to sentence case (i.e., capitalizes the first letter), the second tap turns it into all caps, and the third tap changes it back to all lowercase.

ClipBoard

I’ve long relied on a few third-party clipboard managers, like ClipBoard, to save and manage copied text on my Android phones. These apps automatically save copied items and offer ways to store them in an organized manner, helping to ensure they remain accessible later. Some even offer a built-in search, which makes finding them much easier. However, using the copied items in other apps was still a hassle. Thankfully, as part of an update a few years back, Gboard received the ability to retain multiple copied items and pin favorites. The best part is that, because it’s part of the keyboard, accessing and pasting copied items is incredibly easy.

Clipboard isn’t enabled in Gboard by default. To turn it on, bring up the keyboard, tap the gear icon to go to the settings page, scroll down, and select Clipboard. On the next screen, flip the toggle next to the options you want to copy.

Now, when you copy any item (text or image), Gboard will save it. You may see it in the suggestion bar at the top. Alternatively, you can tap the clipboard icon in the suggestion strip to view all your copied items. Remember that Gboard automatically deletes copied items after an hour. If you want to retain an item, tap and hold it, then select Pin. Pinned items are saved indefinitely until you unpin them or delete them manually. You can also delete items you no longer need.

Text Expander

I need to share my address and a few other details with people quite often, and typing them out every single time isn’t practical. For the longest time, I’ve used the Texpand app on my Android phones to do this efficiently. As the name suggests, Texpand lets you create shortcuts for your most-typed text snippets. You can then type this shortcut, and the app replaces it with the expanded version. Having said that, I’ve been in situations where Texpand wouldn’t expand a shortcut after I typed it. That’s when I decided to try Gboard’s personal dictionary feature, which offers similar functionality and, most importantly, works more reliably.

You can set up a personal dictionary from Gboard settings. Tap the gear icon at the top of the keyboard to access settings, select Dictionary, and tap your language’s dictionary. Hit the plus (+) icon in the top-right corner to create a new shortcut. Type the text for which you want to create the shortcut in the Type a word field, and the trigger shortcut in the Shortcut field.

Once set up, using the shortcut is easy. Just type it in the text field, and you’ll see its expanded version in the suggestion strip at the top of Gboard. Tap it to insert it into the text field.

You may still need certain apps for other tasks

Gboard does the job of the above apps quite well. However, there’s one caveat: it doesn’t offer the same level of functionality as those dedicated apps. Take the clipboard manager feature, for instance. Unlike a dedicated app, it lacks organization features and doesn’t let you save clippings permanently unless you pin them. Similarly, the Google Translate feature can help with text translations, but you still need its app for live translations.

So, if you’ve been using any of the above apps and thinking of replacing them with Gboard’s built-in features, evaluate your use case first. You may be able to replace some of them completely, but may still need others for certain tasks.