Updated Google Keyboard syncs your dictionary across devices

A new update for the official Google Keyboard has landed on the Play Store, bringing with it some useful new features, while simultaneously chucking out a few less popular options. Unfortunately, there’s no sign of Android M’s split keyboard option yet, but that will probably arrive in time.

The most notable and by far the most useful addition with Google Keyboard 4.1 is the ability to sync your dictionary to your Google account. This means that users can share their customized dictionary across multiple device and also means that all your words will be automatically carried over to any new devices that you purchase.

Google has also introduced new a privacy settings menu into the app. From here users can manage their cloud data and op-out of Google’s statistical data collection. There’s also emoji support for physical keyboards too, which can be accessed using the Alt key.

It’s not all new features though, Google has also seen it fit to remove the “Phase Gesture” feature that allowed users to swipe entire phrases out, rather than just words, but swiping over the spacebar in between words. Auto-correction is no longer configurable between modest, aggressive or very aggressive levels of spell checking, the setting has now been replaced by a simple on and off switch.

If you want to enable dictionary sync, simply head on over to the new “Accounts and Privacy” setting from within the app. In this menu you can select the Google account that you would like to use to sync with, just in case you have more than one, and enable the sync option. Simple.

If you haven’t automatically updated the app yet or have been using a different keyboard, you can manually update Google Keyboard from the Play Store for free.