Insider builds of Windows 11 are an experimental playground for Microsoft, giving the company a chance to experiment with beta testers on new features and options before a wider rollout. In a recent development channel build, there were signs that new shortcuts would be coming to the operating system.
Users who installed Windows 11 build 22557 noticed that the language switch panel accessed through the taskbar is now the home page of buttons to access a range of input options. This includes the Emoji panel, the clipboard panel, and more.
Right now, Microsoft seems to be doing A/B testing, as the new option does appear to everyone on the Dev Channel now, and for those who see it, there are some handy new shortcuts.
Of course, users can still use the Windows + Space keyboard shortcut to cycle through languages, but if you tap the language button you’ll see buttons to access voice input, the Emoji panel, the clipboard panel, and the touch keyboard.
It’s worth noting that these are just new shortcuts, no new functions, but you can see the new buttons in this screenshot below:
While the language switcher panel may currently only be of interest to people who have to switch between languages to access accented letters, non-English characters, etc., the addition of new buttons to access other input methods means there may be more incentive to enable it.