Write text with your finger (Android)

The new, free Google Handwriting Input app replaces your device’s onscreen keyboard with a blank field into which you can write text using your finger. Google then recognises whatever you’ve written and converts it into text.

Install the app Google Handwriting Input from, then open it. Tap Enable Handwriting Input at the top, then the slider beside Google Handwriting Input – English (United Kingdom) to turn it on, then tap OK. Next, tap Select Google Handwriting Input, then select English (United Kingdom).

Now, when you open any app that offers the option to type (such as an email or note-taking app), you’ll notice your keyboard has been replaced by a grey, blank field. Using your finger, start writing whatever you want and it’ll automatically appear as text in your message (see screenshot above right). On completion of each word, the field slides out of view to the left, letting you write the next word, and so on. If it fails to recognise your writing correctly, then click one of the autosuggest options or use the backspace icon at the bottom to delete, then rewrite it. Even though our onscreen handwriting was illegible (to say the least), the app correctly recognised everything we wrote without

the need to use autosuggest.

For security reasons, you should use your onscreen keyboard to enter sensitive information, such as passwords. To toggle between the keyboard and handwriting mode, tap the globe icon at the bottom. the expand/pinch gestures to zoom in and out of your PDF. To find a particular word in the file, tap the search icon at the top and type the word to see all instances of it highlighted in green.

The app also comes with a new Night Mode option, which converts your file to white text on a black background, ideal if you want to read PDFs in the dark. To use this, tap the three dots at the top right, View Modes, then tap Turn Night Mode On.