New Google app to help you write freely

Google has designed a new app to test your on-screen penmanship. Called Google Handwriting Input, the app allows the users to 'write' on a smartphone or tablet screen.

It automatically interprets letters from 82 languages and transforms them into standard digital text. The users can use their fingers as well to write.

Developed by the company's research team, Handwriting Input can identify both cursive and print handwriting, and accepts emojis, reported CNET.

"Using handwriting as an input method can allow for natural and intuitive input method for text entry which complements typing and speech input methods," Google's research team wrote in a blog post recently.

Google's handwriting app is not entirely new though.

Windows Journal, an app built into Microsoft's operating system, similarly allows users to input their handwriting.

The app then interprets each letter and provides a standard digital text version.

But Google Handwriting Input supports both on-device processing of handwriting and a cloud-based version.

According to Google, when users decide to put their handwriting through its web-based servers via the cloud feature, it "will usually produce more accurate results" than the offline version that doesn't send handwriting recognition out to the web but rather uses the features built into the app to recognise letters.

Google Handwriting Input is available now as a free download in the Google Play marketplace. The app requires Android 4.0.3 and up in order to work.