How to type Spanish accents on Android

The fastest way: press and hold

1. Hold the vowel until the variants appear (á à â ä…).
2. Slide to the one you want and let go.
3. For ñ, hold n. For ü, hold u.
4. For ¿ and ¡, tap ?123 (Gboard) or !#1 (Samsung) and hold ? or !.

Quick table

On Samsung Keyboard, numbers open with !#1 instead of ?123. Tap a letter in the first column to copy it.

Add Spanish to Gboard

1. In any app, tap Gboard's gear (or hold the comma key) and go to Settings › Languages.
2. Tap Add keyboard and choose Spanish (Spain, United States, Mexico, Latin America…).
3. Pick the QWERTY layout and turn on Multilingual typing to type Spanish and English without switching.
4. Without multilingual typing, switch with the globe 🌐 or by holding the space bar.

On Samsung Keyboard

1. Open Settings › General management › Samsung Keyboard settings › Languages and types.
2. Tap Manage input languages and turn on Spanish.
3. Switch languages by swiping the space bar or with the globe.

Tips

• Dictation: tap the microphone and speak Spanish; Gboard adds accents and ¿ ¡.
• Personal dictionary: in Gboard › Dictionary › Personal dictionary you can save shortcuts, e.g. xq → “porque”.
• Accents autocorrect won't add: esta/está and tu/tú are both real words, so autocorrect leaves them. See the accent rules.

Common problems

• Holding a letter types a number. On Gboard, the top row shows numbers on long-press. Slide to the letter variants instead of letting go, or turn off “Long press for symbols” in Settings › Preferences.
• Predictions come in English. Add Spanish and turn on multilingual typing.