One UI feature focus: Samsung Keyboard tips & tricks and hidden features

Samsung Keyboard is one of the most feature-rich touch-based input solutions around. It's available out of the box for Galaxy smartphones and tablets, and it's chock-full of customization options and useful tools. Today, we'll explore a few of these Samsung Keyboard features that may help improve your experience.

In addition to Samsung Keyboard offering robust 1st-party features, the app also supports a few third-party tools, including extensions for Bitmoji and mojitok, GIF galleries through Giphy and Tenor, and more. We'll also touch on a couple of “hidden” features that you may be unaware of, so without further ado, here are some of our favorite Samsung Keyboard tools and tips & tricks.

NOTE: This guide was created using One UI 5.0 on the Galaxy S22+, and some settings/options might differ or not be present in Samsung Keyboard for other One UI versions.

Manage third-party Samsung Keyboard extensions

To access Samsung Keyboard settings, open the Settings app on your phone, access “General management,” tap “Keyboard list and default,” and select “Samsung Keyboard.” To view third-party Keyboard extensions, scroll down and tap “Select third-party content to use.”

Here you can enable or disable extensions individually, including Bitmoji, mojitok, Giphy and Tenor, Spotify, Google (Translation and YouTube), and Grammarly, by tapping the toggles ON or OFF. Now, before you can use these third-party extensions, you need to add them to your Samsung Keyboard toolbar. To do this, summon the keyboard (for example, by creating a new document in Samsung Notes), then tap the three-dot button in the upper-right corner of the keyboard. Finally, drag and drop the desired extensions to the toolbar. The latter can accommodate up to 7 extensions and tools at a time.

Manage custom symbols in Samsung Keyboard

As you probably know, Samsung Keyboard allows you to access more symbols through a small pop-up by tapping and holding the period button. These symbols, however, can be customized to your liking. Here's how.

Same as before, open the Settings app, access “General Management,” tap “Keyboard list and default,” and tap “Samsung Keyboard.” Next, however, select “Custom symbols.”

Here, you can use the interactive preview window at the top to customize your Samsung Keyboard symbols. You can select the symbol you want to remove in the preview window at the top, then tap the symbol you want to add via the keyboard at the bottom of the screen. Here's the process visualized in a screen recording:

NOTE: If you want the pop-up custom symbol window to remain open without having to hold your thumb pressed to the screen, you can go to “Swipe, touch, and feedback” via the “Samsung Keyboard” settings screen and tap the “Keep symbol panel open” toggle ON.

Two Samsung Keyboard “hidden” features you may find useful

Finally, here are a couple of tips that may elevate your Samsung Keyboard user experience to a new level. The app has a couple of somewhat hidden gestures that can be extremely useful once you add them to your repertoire.

Firstly, you can use the spacebar to control the cursor. As you may know, swiping left and right on the spacebar changes languages (assuming you have more than one). However, tapping, holding, and swiping left or right (and/or up and down) on the spacebar changes the position of the on-screen cursor. To use this feature, make sure “Cursor control” is selected in the “Touch and hold space bar” menu.

Secondly, here's a quick tip that may help you speed up your typing. You can tap and hold the “Shift” key on your Samsung Keyboard to convert “Backspace” into “Delete” on the fly. Here's a quick video exemplifying both the Cursor Control and the Shift+Backspace functions:

What are some of your favorite Samsung Keyboard features? Feel free to leave a comment below.