Gmail And Google Docs Now Support Handwriting Input

Your keyboard isn’t always the ideal input device when you’re writing in a foreign language that uses special characters. Now you can handwrite those characters in Gmail and Google Docs.

The new handwriting input lets you enter text by drawing with the mouse or trackpad (or, if you have a touchscreen PC, a stylus or your fingers). First you’ll need to enable the new Input Tools by going to Settings and looking for the option in the General tab in Gmail or Google Drive. (Note: It looks like this update is still rolling out, so the option might not be there for you yet. Alternately, you could use Google’s Input Tools Chrome extension as mentioned in the video above.)

Once enabled, you’ll be able to choose the language you want to use. According to Google, handwriting input is supported for over 20 languages, and in Gmail for over 50 languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Hindi and Russian.

Seems like a great update for people studying foreign languages or who regularly communicate in those other languages. You can learn more about Google’s alternate Input Tools here or the handwriting tool in particular from the link below.

Handwriting input comes to Gmail and Google Docs [Official Gmail Blog]