3 features that make Google Pixel’s “context-aware” voice typing better than any keyboard

You most likely already know Gboard gives an important voice typing expertise. What you may not know is that on a Pixel machine, Gboard additionally helps voice enhancing. You may take a messy voice draft and use instructions to make exact edits, formalize it, or rewrite it—all with out touching the display screen.

Listed here are three core options that make Gboard’s voice typing on the Pixel higher than another keyboard.

Model

Google

SoC

Google Tensor G5

Show

6.3-inch Actua OLED, 20:9

RAM

12 GB RAM

Storage

128 GB / 256 GB

Battery

4970mAh

Trying to improve to a Pixel however undecided in the event you want all of the bells and whistles of the costlier fashions? You will not be disillusioned with the usual Pixel 10 mannequin. Coming in putting colours, Gemini options, and 7 years of updates, you may’t go flawed with this buy.

Use your voice to insert punctuation

Cease poking at your display screen simply so as to add a comma

Gboard on Pixel already does a strong job of inserting punctuation robotically as you communicate. More often than not, you don’t have to consider it—it simply figures out the place the commas and intervals go.

Nonetheless, it’s not excellent. Generally it misses an apparent comma, and different instances you may wish to intentionally place punctuation in a selected spot. In these instances, you may merely say the punctuation out loud: “comma,” “interval,” “query mark,” “exclamation level,” or “new line.” Based mostly in your pauses and speech patterns, Gboard can often inform whether or not you imply the phrase “exclamation” or the punctuation—and it’s very correct in my expertise.

Past punctuation, you may also use your voice to insert emojis into your message. As a substitute of pausing to seek out the precise emoji, simply say—“crying laughing emoji” or “fireplace emoji”—and it seems inline. Simply don’t do that round different individuals. Saying “chuckle emoji” 4 instances in a row is a fast approach to get some awkward appears.

Palms-free textual content enhancing

From voice typing to voice enhancing

If errors occur once you sort by hand, they’re much more seemingly once you sort by voice. Fortunately, Gboard helps you to repair these errors utilizing voice instructions—so that you don’t have to choose up your telephone and change to the keyboard. For instance, if the final phrase you dictated was flawed, you may say “delete final phrase” to take away it. If the complete transcription is a large number, simply say “clear” to wipe it. And if all the things appears excellent, say “ship” to fireside off the message.

The extra highly effective layer is detailed enhancing instructions which can be found on Pixel 8 and later. These allow you to make exact edits solely by voice. For instance, say you dictated:

“John went to the cafeteria.”

However you meant “Johnny” as an alternative of “John.” You may say, “Change John to Johnny” or “Substitute John with Johnny,” and Gboard will repair it robotically. You can too say “delete John” to take away that phrase. You may delete particular phrases, capitalize textual content, and even spell out uncommon names character by character. It would sound fiddly at first, however when you get used to it, you may compose and edit a whole message with out ever touching your telephone.

Right here’s a listing of all of the instructions:

• Delete final phrase: Deletes probably the most not too long ago spoken/typed phrase.
• Delete [word]: Deletes the newest occasion of the precise phrase from the textual content.
• Clear: Deletes the final sentence. Instance: “Good morning. How are you?” > say “Clear” > “Good morning.”
• Clear all: Clears the complete textual content subject. Instance: “Assembly at 5pm tomorrow” > say “Clear all” > empty subject
• Ship: Sends the present message.
• Cease: Turns off the microphone.
• Insert earlier than/after [word]: Inserts a phrase earlier than or after a specified phrase. Instance: “I would like espresso and tea” > say “Insert sizzling earlier than espresso” > “I would like sizzling espresso and tea”
• Change [word] to [word]: Replaces a selected phrase. Instance: “Let’s meet on Monday” > say “Change Monday to Friday” > “Let’s meet on Friday”
• Spell [word] as [letters]: Forces a customized spelling. Instance: Say “The brand new app known as Nate. [pause] Spell Nate as Okay-N-A-T-E” > “The brand new app known as KNATE”
• Capitalize [word]: Capitalizes a selected phrase. Instance: “assembly with dr. Sharma” > say “Capitalize dr.” > “assembly with Dr. Sharma”
• Lowercase [word]: Lowercases a capitalized phrase. Instance: “Ship this to HR Division” > say “Lowercase Division” > “Ship this to HR division”

Proofread and rewrite whole messages along with your voice

Simply say “repair it”

This characteristic is offered on Pixel 9 and later (excluding the 9a), and it’s the place voice typing begins to really feel genuinely highly effective—and like a real keyboard substitute. After you dictate a message, you may say “proofread this” or “repair this,” and the keyboard’s built-in AI will clear it up for you. It corrects typos, grammar errors, and punctuation points, leaving you with a cultured, readable message.

As you’d anticipate, this fully streamlines the enhancing course of. You don’t have to fret about enhancing mistranscriptions, missed punctuation, or filler phrases—all of it’s dealt with for you. The primary limitation is correct nouns the AI doesn’t acknowledge—these are often the one belongings you’ll want to repair manually.

You can too use this characteristic to rewrite your message. In case your voice drafts are typically too informal to ship to your boss or colleagues, you may say “formalize the textual content” to make it extra skilled. You may go the opposite manner, too—make your message extra informal, pleasant, and even add emojis. You can too broaden a brief message or shorten an extended one.

While you use the rewriter, a brand new dialog field seems with a number of variations of your message. You may cycle by them by saying “subsequent” or “earlier.” As soon as you discover one you want, say “use this,” and it’ll substitute the unique textual content.

There are nonetheless some hiccups

It’s not excellent—nevertheless it’s virtually excellent

Credit score: Lucas Gouveia/How-To Geek

The primary time you employ Gboard’s superior voice typing options, it will probably really feel a bit hit and miss. That’s not as a result of the characteristic doesn’t work—it’s as a result of there’s a selected manner to make use of it. Nonetheless, when you get the hold of it, the workflow feels surprisingly intuitive.

You should pause for the instructions to register

A very powerful factor to know is the pause. You should pause for at the least a second earlier than saying a command—in any other case, it will get typed out as common textual content. For instance, in the event you say “John mentioned to delete the phrase John” with out pausing, the complete sentence will probably be typed. However in the event you say “John mentioned to [pause] delete the phrase John,” Gboard will interpret the command and take away “John,” leaving “mentioned to.”

That mentioned, you don’t want to fret about unintentional instructions. If Gboard isn’t positive whether or not you meant one thing as a command or as textual content, it defaults to typing it out and highlighting it. You may then say “apply” to execute it as a command.

The AI can solely ‘see’ the final couple of sentences

Voice instructions are restricted to the previous few sentences from the placement of the textual content cursor. So in the event you say “delete John,” it removes the newest occasion of “John.” I might’ve preferred to have extra superior focusing on choices, like “delete the second occasion of John,” nevertheless it isn’t supported—at the least not on the time of writing. This limitation additionally applies to AI options like “repair it” or rewriting, the place the AI solely processes the final two or three sentences.

Nonetheless, it’s not a dealbreaker. You may simply faucet to pick out the phrase manually after which use voice instructions to edit it. It’s a viable workaround, nevertheless it breaks the hands-free workflow.

The expertise is optimized for brief messages

Total, Gboard’s superior voice typing and voice command options work greatest with shorter messages. For those who’re dictating a few sentences, all the things feels seamless—the AI can course of the complete context, and voice edits work reliably.

However in the event you attempt dictating a 500-word block after which run “repair it,” the expertise turns into much more janky as a result of restricted context window. A sensible workaround is to dictate in chunks—two or three sentences at a time—run “repair it,” after which proceed. It’s not perfect, nevertheless it works.