Gboard for Android Finally Gets Undo and Redo Buttons
Gboard, the default keyboard on many Android phones, finally gets a full undo button. Until now, you had to use a Japanese keyboard to access the undo button , but Google has finally fixed that gap. In Gboard 15 for Android, you will be able to use the cancel button, which fortunately works in all languages.
How to customize the undo and redo buttons in Gboard
First, go to the Google Play Store and update Gboard to the latest version. After that, open any app where you can see the keyboard, such as Messages or Chrome. Launch the keyboard and tap the four squares icon in the top left corner of the keyboard. This will show you all the shortcuts you can add to the suggestions bar at the top. Cancel should be one of the shortcuts. You can drag it to the suggestion bar at the top of your keyboard for easier access.
The Redo button appears in the suggestions bar when you try to undo something using Gboard.
How undo and redo works in Gboard
Once you type something using Gboard, you can easily use the Undo and Redo command to undo or redo actions! The trick is to get the button to appear in the suggestions bar, which may not happen right away if you also have autocorrect enabled, since autocorrect suggestions are also populated here. So, to use the Gboard cancel button, you can first type something and then click the button with the four squares in the top left corner. This will replace all AutoCorrect suggestions with an undo button. Click “Cancel” once and a “Redo” button will appear next to it.
Undoing actions in Gboard is equivalent to pressing the delete button on your keyboard once. You can’t press and hold the Undo button to quickly erase a bunch of words, but you can press it to delete the previous word you typed. If you regret hitting Undo, or if you hit it one too many times, you can use the Redo button to undo one character at a time. The good thing is that the undo/redo feature works even if you switch to another app and go back to the original one. Unfortunately, if you end up force closing the app, your undo history will be deleted and you’ll have to start over. This means that after you force close the app and reopen it, clicking the Cancel button won’t do anything until you’ve typed a few more words.