Google has added support for handwriting input to Gmail and Google Docs. You can use a mouse or touchpad to enter text, but this’ll really come in handy if you’re using one of Google’s web apps on a touchscreen tablet that doesn’t normally support handwriting input as a form of text entry.

gmail handwriting

At launch, 20 different languages are supported for Google Docs and 50 for Gmail.

You’ll need to enable input tools before you can use handwriting recognition in the Gmail app. You should be able to trigger it in Google Docs by pressing Ctrl + Shift + K (or Cmd + Shift + on a Mac).

Like most new Google features, this seems be rolling out in phases, so you may not have access right away.

I have horrible handwriting and type much more quickly than I could write — even when using an on-screen keyboard. But this sort of thing will certainly help people with better handwriting than mine — as well as people who speak languages that are hard to represent with the limited number of keys available on a typical keyboard.

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