On Pixel phones and many other Android handsets, the default keyboard is Gboard. When it pops up on screen, tap the mic icon (far right) to enable voice typing, and you can start talking. For more ...

To set up custom text shortcuts on Android, use your keyboard’s settings. For Gboard, go to Settings > Dictionary > Personal Dictionary, then add a word and its shortcut.

Google recently changed how the message composition field looked. We got a double-line composition box, with the text input weirdly hovering over the top.