Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google has brought undo and redo buttons to stable versions of the Gboard app for Android.
- These buttons let you reverse or redo key presses in a manner somewhat similar to tapping Ctrl+Z or Ctrl+Y on a Windows PC.
- This comes a while after the open-source HeliBoard keyboard app offered these same buttons.
Gboard is the most popular keyboard app on Android right now, offering handy features like clipboard functionality, built-in translation capabilities, and more. Google introduced undo and redo buttons to the beta version of the app a while back, and it looks like this feature is finally ready for prime time.
9to5Google reports that Gboard’s undo and redo buttons are now available in the most recent stable versions of the app (version 15). We can confirm that the feature is indeed available in the stable version of Gboard. Check out the screenshots below.
The undo and redo buttons function somewhat similarly to pressing Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y on your Windows computer. Tapping the undo button reverses or “undoes” your previous key press. However, it differs from Ctrl+Z on Windows by only undoing one letter at a time instead of entire words/passages. You can’t long-press the button to reverse an entire word, either. The redo button is available after you’ve tapped undo, allowing you to (surprise) redo the previously reversed key press.
You can find the undo button by tapping the shortcuts menu above the letter “Q.” You can then drag it to the shortcuts bar for easy access. Me? I’ve got this button in my shortcut bar along with the clipboard icon to access recently copied text and images. The undo button is handy if you want to make a quick correction to a typo, especially if autocorrect doesn’t recognize the word. The redo button is also useful if you’ve just backspaced an entire passage but are having second thoughts.
