App Alert: Gboard Will Transform Your Mobile Messaging Game

I love my smartphone and all that it lets me do—but if there's one constant gripe I have with it, it's that the copy-and-paste function is a pain in the you-know-what. My fingers are neither lean nor nimble, and trying to drag that tiny tracker around to highlight text is an exercise in frustration.

Well, be frustrated no more! Today, we're highlighting one mobile app that will lessen your copy-and-pasting woes and put your messaging game on steroids.

Gboard

Gboard is a nifty app that replaces your phone's keyboard—and adds in some seriously powerful features. The app lets you search Google right from your text messaging app (or anywhere else you use your keyboard).

That means agents can search Google for the address of a restaurant, their office, or other location right from their messaging screen. You don't have to toggle between apps and copy-and-paste it into your text. Simply search and hit 'Share' to automatically copy the address to your message. Gboard will also include a link to the location on Google Maps that your message's recipient can click on to instantly get directions.

Of course, searching Google isn't limited to just locations. You can search and share anything you would normally search on Google with Gboard—weather, sports scores, news, images, random Wikipedia entries, etc.

And you're not just limited to using Gboard or sharing what you find via text. As we mentioned, this app completely replaces your phone's native keyboard. So it's available anywhere else you use your keyboard, like email or social media.

Speaking of social media, if you're one who likes to share GIFs on Facebook or Twitter, Gboard makes that a whole lot easier, too. The app sports a built-in GIF search function so you can find and share your favorite crying Michael Jordan or cat meme as fast as humanly possible.

Android users have enjoyed the speed of Glide typing for years now, but iOS users have had to seek out third-party apps. Luckily for Apple lovers weary of the hunt-and-peck game, Gboard comes with Glide typing baked in. (If you're not quite sure what that means, check out the image below. Basically, it's typing without picking up your finger—and it's very efficient!)

Gboard offers a ton of other neat features, like:

• Emoji search
• Voice typing
• Keyboard themes
• Multilingual typing
• Google translation as you type

Gboard is free for both Android and iOS devices.