Google Keyboard For Android Gets A New Look

On many smartphones with Android operating systems, inputs are made with Gboard – Google’s own virtual keyboard. Users will soon notice significant adjustments to the keyboard’s design. First, the developers rearrange the toolbar.

Google is once again working on its Gboard virtual keyboard

With over 5 billion downloads in the Google Play Store, Gboard is one of the most widely used Android applications. Updates to the app always affect a large number of users at once. They can now prepare for the fact that the layout and appearance of the interface will soon change. As reported by Android Police, Google has begun to significantly redesign the toolbar, which has remained unchanged for a long time, and to add functions.

First and most important adjustment: The menu, previously represented by three dots and placed in the middle of the other options, now gets a new icon – four rounded squares – and moves to a permanent place on the left side of the toolbar. When you open the menu, a newly sorted view appears that uses the space for displaying the elements much better than before.

Developers also choose to remove elements from the default configuration and add new ones in their place. The options for setting the theme and advanced word processing are placed elsewhere, but buttons for settings and emojis slide into the overview. After the update, it will also be possible to drag and drop any number of shortcuts into the toolbar for quick access and rearrange them as you wish.

Still testing

The customized Gboard interface is being tested with the current beta version, build number 12.6.06.491625702. As Android Police states, the rollout currently seems to be limited by a server-side component from Google.