Gboard

Gboard is a virtual keyboard, officially designed for Android devices and tablets that tailors a customizable keyboard experience. It supports multiple input methods such as gesture, voice, handwriting, and usual on-screen letter-tapping. 

The feature-rich handy tool supports multiple languages, real-time translation, browsing for stickers and GIFs, and also offers a save to the clipboard option. It is one of the most popular apps, as according to Google Play Store, it has 1TB downloads across the world. 

What is Gboard?

Gboard was developed by Google and was published in May 2016 for iOS, and for Android devices for December 2016. It comes pre-installed in multiple smartphones and offers Google Search that includes web results, predictive answers, and easy searching of GIFs as well. The support for a huge collection of languages and scripts helps bilingual and multilingual users.

The app offers a minimalist design with multi-color support and allows the user to modify settings according to their requirements. You can input your searches in various ways, including typing, voice-dictation, and so on. 

Gboard Features

Multiple Inputting Capabilities

The multi-support to input your searches is one of the best options, as it enables you to select the method that better suits you, such as;

• Glide Typing: It helps you to form words while sliding your finger from letter to letter. In this way, you can easily write a message within a few taps, and pairing with the smart correction feature makes your sentence accurate.
• Voice Typing: Use the microphone to dictate your messages right from the keyboard. It is the best solution for writing long texts, or if your hands are busy, and even if you can’t write. It will reliably convert your speech to text with correct pronunciation.
• Handwriting Input: it allows you to use a pen or stylus to make your writing natural while supporting the writing in cursive or printed letters available in the keyboard area. 
• Multilingual Typing: It is not necessary to switch to other languages; instead, enable multilingual typing from the settings, and get quick suggestions and auto-corrections across enabled languages. 

Minimalist Design

The minimalist design offers a lot of incredible capabilities, and also various color schemes. The customizable keyboard isn’t flashy, as it looks like a traditional mobile keyboard layout similar to other virtual keyboards. But a lot of innovative features are hidden that make it unique and awesome. When you have used it for a long time, it is difficult to knock off the style.

Seamless Customization

The seamless customization options are available for your ease in making changes according to your taste. So, it offers various color schemes to apply your favorite one, select dark or light modes, and modify the size and position. The enabling of the permanent number row and resize keys is also possible. Sort, add, and remove icons while customizing the entire toolbar. Toggle on the haptic feedback, keypress sounds, and also long press duration. Give a long press to the space bar for quick switching between languages.

Unparalleled Typing Experience

The unparalleled typing experience gives the keyboard more uniqueness, as an accurate autocorrect tool allows fast typing while leading to fewer mistakes. The compatibility with machine learning helps to explore the typing style of users and generate more accurate predictive typing. It makes your typing quick, as commonly predicted suggestions prove useful, and helps to focus on the text, instead of watching every keypress. 

Supported Languages

The built-in Translator allows quick translation for typing within compatible apps, right from the keyboard. As the app offers support for hundreds of popular languages and writing systems, including complex scripts, with simultaneous detection and auto-correct facilities. Simply select a target language, and type in your own language to see a translation, and there's no need to switch apps for replying in chats. In addition, updated custom dictionaries are available based on the history, errors, and habits. 

Smart Search

Smart Search is a dedicated button available right on the keyboard to offer hundreds of emojis and also GIF search. You need only to enter keywords, and access to your favorite emojis, stickers, and GIFs. It is possible to search, mix, or generate new expressions and awesome combinations for use in the chats. No need of using additional app, instead send visual content right from the keyboard. It also allows you to create bitmojis and stickers based on your face to send to others. 

Save to Clipboard

The incorporation of the clipboard manager with the app allows users to save, pin, and paste recent text more reliably. It also offers enhanced security for sensitive data, such as passwords, one-time verification codes, and so on, which are automatically deleted. The history is also removed from the app, and copying and pasting of several texts is also possible. 

Pros

• Pre-installed utility on multiple Android devices
• Simple interface
• Support multiple input options 
• Offers security for sensitive data
• Smart search option for emojis, stickers, and GIFs
• Support multiple languages

Cons

• Crashes and random glitches are complaints
• Uses a lot of system resources when enabling all features