Gesture cheat sheet

Every drag, long-press, and hold on WM Keyboard, flattened onto one page: what it does, where it lives, and the setting that controls it. Each family gets its own short table here; for the reasoning and the numbers behind each one, follow the link into its full page.

The Gestures group on the Typing settings screen, home to most of the spacebar and backspace gestures below.

This page covers touch gestures only. For the physical-keyboard leader key, its letter bindings, and panel navigation, see Hardware shortcuts instead.

Swiping the spacebar

WM Keyboard›Typing›Gestures

Which action a spacebar swipe runs depends on when the drag starts relative to the long-press delay (300 ms by default), not on how far it travels. A drag that crosses the slop before the delay elapses uses the Quick swipe slot; one that starts after uses the Hold + swipe slot. Full mechanics on Gestures and Switching languages.

Gesture	Where	What it does	Setting
Tap, no movement	Spacebar	Types a space	—
Swipe starting before the long-press delay	Spacebar	Runs the Quick swipe slot’s action	Quick swipe on spacebar (default Language)
Hold past the long-press delay, then swipe	Spacebar	Runs the Hold + swipe slot’s action	Hold + swipe on spacebar (default Cursor)
Slot = Language, swipe sideways	Spacebar	Steps through enabled layouts (44 dp per step, 110 dp to wrap past either end)	Quick/Hold slot set to Language
Slot = Cursor, swipe sideways	Spacebar	Moves the text cursor one character per 16 dp of drag	Quick/Hold slot set to Cursor
Same, dragging vertically	Spacebar	Also steps the cursor a line at a time	2-D cursor touchpad (Off)
Slot = Numpad, cross the initial slop	Spacebar	Opens the numeric keypad (one-shot, so the rest of the drag does nothing)	Quick/Hold slot set to Numpad
Straight downward drag, steeper than it is wide	Spacebar	Dismisses the keyboard	Swipe down to hide (Off)
Press and hold (~250 ms, or your long-press delay if shorter)	Spacebar	Opens the inline language preview or a scrollable picker list	—
Drag once the preview or picker is open	Spacebar	Always switches language, regardless of which slot is configured	—

Dragging backspace to delete words

WM Keyboard›Typing›Backspace

Tap, hold-to-repeat, and word-swipe are one state machine on ⌫, so a drag can take over from the repeat loop mid-press. Each word costs less to delete than the last: 72 dp for the first, 56 dp for the second, then 6 dp less per word down to a 28 dp floor. Full breakdown, including the character-run and selection rules, on Gestures.

Gesture	Where	What it does	Setting
Tap	Backspace	Deletes one character	—
Hold still	Backspace	Repeats character deletion after the long-press delay, at the key-repeat interval	Long-press delay · Key repeat interval
Drag left past a small slop	Backspace	Cancels the repeat and deletes a word per step, shrinking with each word	Swipe to delete words (On)
Drag right mid-swipe	Backspace	Re-anchors instead of undeleting, so the next leftward word costs full travel again	(same)

Long-pressing a key

WM Keyboard›Key press

The full field-by-field list (haptics, sound, popup timing, and every long-press shortcut) is on Key press settings.

Gesture	Where	What it does	Setting
Long-press a letter key	Letter keys	Opens its accent/alternate-character popup	Long-press hints (On) · All accents on long-press (Off)
Long-press ?123	?123	Opens the numeric keypad panel (a tap still switches symbol layers as usual)	Hold ?123 for numpad (Off)
Long-press A/C/X/V/Z/Y	Those letter keys	Runs select-all / copy / cut / paste / undo / redo instead of that letter’s accents	Hold A/C/X/V/Z/Y to … (all Off)
Double-tap Shift within the window	Shift key	Turns on caps lock	Caps-lock double-tap (350 ms)
Hold any key still	Any key	Shows the key preview bubble	Key popup (On)

Using the volume keys as a cursor

WM Keyboard›Typing›Volume keys

Off by default, and only active while the keyboard is on screen. As soon as it closes, the volume keys go back to controlling volume. See Gestures for the swallow-press-and-release detail.

Gesture	Where	What it does	Setting
Press volume down	Hardware volume rocker	Moves the cursor one character left	Volume cursor control (Off)
Press volume up	Hardware volume rocker	Moves the cursor one character right	(same)
Hold a volume key	Hardware volume rocker	Repeats via Android’s own hardware key-repeat	(same)
Press while audio is actually playing	Hardware volume rocker	Falls back to real volume control instead of the cursor	Release while audio plays (On)

Dragging inside a panel or the toolbar

A grab-bag of drags that live on their own feature pages, linked below each row.

Gesture	Where	What it does	Setting
Long-press an emoji	Emoji picker	Opens the skin-tone/gender variant popup, with a star-to-favorite toggle	Emoji descriptions (On)
Drag a favorite in the reorder list	Emoji picker → History tab	Reorders your favorites	—
Long-press a Klipy/GIPHY result	Stickers panel	Opens “Save to a pack”	—
Long-press a GIF result	GIF panel	Nothing, since GIFs have no save affordance	—
Swipe a card left or right	Clipboard panel	Deletes it once the drag passes 40% of the card’s width (no confirmation, no undo)	—
Hold and drag a tool	Toolbar / toolbox	Pins, unpins, or reorders it	—
Swipe down on the toolbar strip	Toolbar	Dismisses the keyboard	Swipe down to hide, toolbar (Off)
Drag the seek bar	Media controls	Scrubs playback to that point	—
Swipe across the letters	Letter keys	Glides a word, or draws handwriting instead if reassigned Full edition only	Gesture typing (On)
Drag the floating panel’s handle bar	Floating keyboard	Moves the panel	Floating keyboard (Off)
Drag the floating panel’s resize grip	Floating keyboard	Resizes width and height together (height clamped 60%–160% of normal)	(same)

Options

WM Keyboard›Typing›Gestures

Every default on this page, gathered in one place. “Where” is the settings screen and group; most are one tap from the Typing tile, but a few live under Key press, Emoji, Appearance, or Layout & size.

Setting	Where	Default
Quick swipe on spacebar	Typing → Gestures	Language
Hold + swipe on spacebar	Typing → Gestures	Cursor
2-D cursor touchpad	Typing → Gestures	Off
Swipe down to hide (spacebar)	Typing → Gestures	Off
Gesture typing	Typing → Gestures	On
Swipe to delete words	Typing → Backspace	On
Volume cursor control	Typing → Volume keys	Off
Release while audio plays	Typing → Volume keys	On
Long-press delay	Key press → Timing	300 ms (150–700 ms)
Key repeat interval	Key press → Timing	50 ms
Caps-lock double-tap	Key press → Timing	350 ms
Long-press hints	Key press → Long-press shortcuts	On
All accents on long-press	Key press → Long-press shortcuts	Off
Hold ?123 for numpad	Key press → Long-press shortcuts	Off
Hold A/C/X/V/Z/Y to …	Key press → Long-press shortcuts	Off (each)
Emoji descriptions	Emoji → Emoji panel	On
Swipe down to hide (toolbar)	Appearance → Toolbar	Off
Floating keyboard width	Layout & size → One-handed, split & floating	320 dp

Details & edge cases

• Quick vs. Hold + swipe resolves by hold time, not distance. A fast flick and a careful drag can cover the same ground, so the keyboard can’t tell them apart by how far you’ve moved, only by whether the long-press delay has elapsed yet.
• Numpad is a discrete action. Unlike Cursor or Language, which keep responding for as long as you drag, a slot set to Numpad only needs the initial slop crossed once; everything after that is inert.
• There are two different “Swipe down to hide” settings. One lives under Typing → Gestures and applies to the spacebar; a separate one under Appearance → Toolbar applies to the toolbar strip. Turning one on doesn’t touch the other.
• The 2-D cursor touchpad only claims the vertical axis once a drag has actually resolved to Cursor. With the defaults (Quick swipe = Language, Hold + swipe = Cursor), a fast downward flick within the long-press delay is still governed by the quick-swipe slot and dismisses the keyboard rather than scrolling through lines.
• Backspace’s word-delete acceleration resets on a reversal, not on release. Dragging right mid-swipe doesn’t bring back a deleted word. It only means the next leftward word costs full travel (72 dp) again instead of the shrunk amount.
• Volume-key cursor control re-checks “is audio playing” on every key press, not once at the start, so Release while audio plays hands control back and forth live as playback starts and stops mid-typing.
• Two long-press delay sliders share one value. The Key press → Timing slider ranges 150–700 ms; the Accessibility → Touch slider for the same setting shows a wider 150–800 ms range, but the stored value still clamps to 700 ms, so dragging that slider to 800 silently snaps back once you let go.
• A very wide screen can let the floating panel’s resize grip briefly exceed its 500 dp maximum mid-drag. It snaps back the moment you release.
• With TalkBack or another screen reader running, most drags above stop working unless you turn on gesture pass-through. Setting TalkBack support to Gestures (under Accessibility → Screen reader) and granting the “WM Keyboard gestures” accessibility service keeps the spacebar cursor slide, the backspace word-swipe, glide typing, and handwriting alive underneath TalkBack’s own touch exploration; without that service granted, all four fall back to Explore-by-touch and don’t respond to a drag. See Accessibility overview.

See Gestures for the full spacebar, backspace, and volume-key writeup, Switching languages for everything about the language ring, Glide typing for the letter-area swipe, and Hardware shortcuts for the physical-keyboard leader key and panel navigation this page doesn’t cover.