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How do I add and remove custom words from the Gboard iOS keyboard's dictionary? This is the keyboard app made by Google for iOS devices.

It seems like it learns custom words after I manually type them out a few times, but how many times must they be typed out? And is pressing a space after the word necessary to register it as a word? Since I'll often go to Safari and type a custom word and hit Enter.

And removing custom words, the only way to do this seems to be to wait until Gboard auto-corrects a word I type to a custom word that I want to delete, then if I backspace and re-write the word, then after a few times of this, it will learn to remove that word. But otherwise, there doesn't seem to be any way to manually remove a custom word. Please let me know if I'm wrong.

Edit: One thing I realized is that custom words will not be added to Gboard's dictionary if they are typed into fields with autocorrect disabled, such as Safari's address bar, which is where I type most of my custom words.

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  • Does pressing and holding the word you don't want not provide a way to remove it? Dec 24, 2016 at 15:57
  • No it doesn't. That method does work in Swype though.
    – Gary
    Dec 24, 2016 at 19:18
  • This is an issue for me as well. I have typed a custom word (my dog's name) many times, and for a while had no problem with gBoard inserting it correctly when I swipe, but now it has completely stopped doing so and always inserts and suggests other similar words. I find the IOS gBoard dictionary options are ridiculous, since the only one is to clear the dictionary.
    – Carol
    Jun 15, 2017 at 15:02
  • I can't answer the question (not enough reputation), but I just switched to an iPhone and found that if I go into text replacement and add new entries there (just the phrase, no need for the shortcut) Gboard lets me glide them without having previously typed them out!
    – mthorp
    May 24, 2018 at 15:29

2 Answers 2

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Adding custom words is done by typing them once. Once typed once, the word will be available using Glide Typing. It may not have a high priority, but gliding accurately enough will choose it, and the more it is used the higher priority it becomes just like any other word.

Removing an individual custom word is not possible currently. You can clear the entire custom dictionary in Gboard → Keyboard Settings → Clear my dictionary.

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    Thanks, I suspected as much, but it's good to be reassured. It is surprisingly difficult to find information on this. This post is already the first result on Google for this question, at least for me.
    – Gary
    Dec 24, 2016 at 6:38
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I am also intrigued about how to edit the vocabulary. Some misspellings have found their way in, but I was very pleased to discover that Gboard had learned my email address. However it recently seems to have unlearned it. No idea how or why.

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