Gboard Just Got a Lot Smarter: 8 New Features You Should Be Using

A sleek, modern smartphone floating at a slight angle showing a glowing keyboard on screen, surrounded by subtle AI neural network patterns and glowing nodes. The background is a deep dark blue-to-purple gradient with soft light rays. Small icons representing features like smart replies, emoji, translation, and voice float around the phone. Clean tech aesthetic, vibrant but not cluttered.

Gboard has been around long enough that most people stopped thinking about it. It just sits there, does its job, and you forget it exists. That’s probably what Google wants. But quietly, over the past year, the team has shipped a string of updates that actually change how you interact with your phone every day. Some are AI-powered. Some are just smart ergonomics. All of them are worth knowing about.

Here’s a rundown of the most exciting things Gboard has added recently, plus exactly how to enable each one.

1. AI Writing Tools: Proofread and Rephrase Without Leaving Your Keyboard

This is the biggest shift Gboard has seen in years. Writing Tools launched with the Pixel 10 and have since rolled out to a broader range of Android devices. The feature runs on Google’s on-device Gemini Nano model, which means your text never leaves your phone for processing.

What it actually does: tap the sparkle icon in the Gboard suggestion strip, and you can proofread an entire paragraph for grammar and spelling, or rephrase it into a different tone. The tone options include friendly, professional, concise, expressive, and elaborate. There’s even an “emojify” option if you want the AI to drop in relevant emoji.

The useful part is where it works. Unlike Gmail’s “Help Me Write” or Messages’ Magic Compose, this isn’t limited to one app. It works anywhere Gboard works, which means WhatsApp, Instagram DMs, Slack, LinkedIn, notes apps, anywhere you type. You fix the text before you send it, without ever copying, pasting, or switching tabs.

How to access Writing Tools:

  1. Update Gboard to the latest version from the Google Play Store.
  2. Open any app with a text field and start typing.
  3. Look for the sparkle (✨) icon in the toolbar row above the keyboard.
  4. Tap it, select your action (Proofread, Rephrase, Change Tone), and apply.

Device requirement: your phone needs to support Gemini Nano v2 or higher. That currently covers Pixel 9, Pixel 10, and flagship Android phones with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite, MediaTek Dimensity 9400, or Samsung Exynos 2500 chips. Mid-range and older devices may not see this feature yet.

2. Rambler: The Voice Typing Upgrade That Actually Understands How People Speak

Standard voice-to-text has one fundamental problem: it hears everything you say. Every “um,” every false start, every sentence you abandoned midway. The result is text that needs heavy editing before it’s usable.

Rambler takes a different approach. Instead of transcribing word-for-word, it captures your intent. You speak naturally at your own pace, and when you’re done, it delivers clean, well-structured text. Filler words are gone. Run-on sentences get formatted. Punctuation appears in the right places.

It’s Gemini-powered and currently exclusive to the Pixel 11 series, where it runs on the Tensor G6 chip. The experience is more like giving a prompt to a language model than dictating to a transcription service. You can even add voice commands mid-session, things like “make that more concise” or “add a bullet list,” and Rambler will comply. Once you tap the checkmark to close the session, the text appears in the input field.

One honest caveat worth knowing upfront: there’s no live preview as you speak. You talk, you wait, the text appears. That’s a deliberate design choice to allow proper sentence processing, but it takes some getting used to if you’re accustomed to watching words appear in real time.

How to use Rambler:

  1. Open any app where you can type (Gmail, Messages, Notes, etc.).
  2. Tap the text field to open Gboard.
  3. Tap the microphone icon (on Pixel 11, it has a Gemini spark badge).
  4. If prompted, tap “Start” to enable Rambler.
  5. Speak naturally. Don’t worry about pauses or filler words.
  6. Tap the checkmark when done. Your text appears, clean and formatted.
  7. To edit by voice, tap the microphone again and issue a command.

To switch between Rambler and the standard voice input, go to Gboard Settings > Voice typing and select your preferred mode.

3. Flick Keys: Type Numbers and Symbols With a Swipe

This one sounds minor until you actually use it. Getting numbers and symbols on a touch keyboard normally means a trip to the ?123 page or a long-press on a key. Flick Keys, which rolled out in Gboard version 16.2, cuts that down to a single gesture.

With the feature enabled, each key on the top row (Q through P) shows small numbers at the top right corner. To type a number instead of a letter, you briefly press the key and swipe down. That’s it. No ?123 button, no long-press menu. The Q key gives you 1, W gives you 2, and so on through 0 on P.

You can adjust the sensitivity in settings, which matters because swipe-down gestures can sometimes conflict with glide typing if the threshold is too low. Most people find a middle sensitivity works well after a day or two of practice.

How to turn on Flick Keys:

  1. Tap and hold the comma key and select the Gboard settings gear icon (or go to Settings > Gboard > Preferences).
  2. Scroll to the Shortcuts section.
  3. Toggle on “Flick keys to enter symbols.”
  4. Optionally, also enable “Touch and hold keys for symbols” for a visual hint overlay.
  5. Adjust the sensitivity slider to suit your typing speed.

4. Trending GIFs: Find the Right Reaction Without Searching

Finding GIFs has always required you to already know what you want. You type “celebration” or “confused” and scroll. But Gboard’s Trending GIFs feature flips that. A small trend-line icon sits next to the search bar in the GIF menu. Tap it, and you see what’s actually trending right now, sourced from Tenor.

The list updates with current events, so if something big happened in sports, pop culture, or news, there’s a good chance there’s already a GIF for it. It’s a small change that removes one friction point from a feature people use constantly.

How to access Trending GIFs:

  1. Tap the emoji/GIF icon in Gboard’s toolbar.
  2. Select GIF.
  3. Look for the upward trend-line icon next to the search bar.
  4. Tap it to see what’s currently trending.

5. AI Stickers With Pixel Studio Integration

For Pixel 9 and Pixel 10 users, Gboard now connects directly to Pixel Studio so you can generate custom stickers from within the keyboard. The Custom Stickers option appears in the redesigned emoji/GIF picker. Tap “Create with AI,” type a prompt, and Pixel Studio generates a sticker you can immediately send or save.

The stickers you create get saved to a personal pack, so they’re accessible in future conversations without regenerating them. It’s a genuinely fun feature for anyone who sends a lot of visual messages and wants something more personal than a stock GIF or emoji.

6. Font Size and Emoji Size Controls

These might seem like cosmetic tweaks, but they matter for usability. Gboard now has a dedicated Font size slider under Settings > Preferences > Appearance. If you’ve ever struggled to hit the right key on a crowded keyboard, bumping up the font size makes a real difference. There’s also a new Emoji size setting that lets you control how many emoji appear per row, from 5 to 9, so you can trade density for clarity based on what works for your eyes.

How to adjust these:

  1. Open Gboard Settings (long press the comma key > Settings icon).
  2. Go to Preferences > Appearance.
  3. Use the Font size slider to increase or decrease key label size.
  4. Use the Emoji size slider to adjust emoji grid density.

7. Hide Punctuation Keys for a Cleaner Layout

Not everyone needs the comma and period keys on the main keyboard row. Gboard now lets you hide them, which widens the spacebar and gives the keyboard a noticeably cleaner look. Punctuation is still accessible via the ?123 page or long-press, so nothing is lost, just moved.

It’s a small preference change, but for people who hate visual clutter on their keyboard, it’s a welcome option.

8. Emoji Kitchen: Browse All Combinations at Once

Emoji Kitchen has been in Gboard for a while, letting you combine two emoji into a custom mashup sticker. What’s new is the Browse feature. Instead of scrolling through a limited carousel, you can now tap the grid icon in the Emoji Kitchen section to open a full browse screen that shows every available combination.

Tap any combined emoji to see which two were used to create it. Tap the base emoji FAB in the corner to filter all combinations involving a specific emoji. It makes the feature genuinely explorable rather than something you stumble into accidentally. The Browse redesign rolled out widely to Pixel devices and is available in Gboard 15.2 and later.

A Note on Device Availability

Not every feature here is available on every Android phone right now. The AI Writing Tools and Rambler require specific chipsets with on-device AI capabilities. Flick Keys, Font size controls, Trending GIFs, and the Emoji Kitchen Browse feature are broadly available across Android devices running a current version of Gboard. Pixel Studio sticker generation is limited to Pixel 9 and newer.

If you’re on an older or mid-range device and don’t see some of these options yet, it’s worth checking whether you have the latest Gboard update installed. Google rolls out features gradually as server-side changes, so even phones that support a feature may not see it immediately after an update.

Also worth noting: Gboard for iOS was officially discontinued in 2022. All new features are Android-only going forward.

How to Make Sure You Have the Latest Gboard

  1. Open the Google Play Store on your Android device.
  2. Tap your profile icon in the top right.
  3. Go to Manage apps and device.
  4. Tap Updates available and look for Gboard in the list.
  5. Tap Update if available.

If you want early access to features before they hit stable, you can join the Gboard Beta program on the Play Store. Navigate to the Gboard page, scroll to the bottom, and tap “Join” under the beta testing section.

Your keyboard is probably the app you use more than any other on your phone. Gboard is finally starting to act like it knows that.

Sources

Leave a comment

Website Built by WordPress.com.

Up ↑