Google has just released their first standalone keyboard for Apple products such as the iPad and iPhone. The big selling points behind this new keyboard is to provide easy access to Google search and it also offers swipe-based typing and access to GIFs. Finally, it includes easy access to common keyboard functions, like emojis and word predictions.
According to the Google Blog they are trying to make common tasks easier “Say you’re texting with a friend about tomorrow’s lunch plans. They ask you for the address. Until now it’s worked like this: You leave your texting app. Open Search. Find the restaurant. Copy the address. Switch back to your texts. Paste the address into a message. And finally, hit send. Searching and sending stuff on your phone shouldn’t be that difficult.”
“With Gboard, you can search and send all kinds of things—restaurant info, flight times, news articles—right from your keyboard. Anything you’d search on Google, you can search with Gboard. Results appear as cards with the key information front and center, such as the phone number, ratings and hours. With one tap, you can send it to your friend and you keep the conversation going.”
Gboard works in any app—messaging, email, YouTube—so you can use it anywhere on your phone. Get it now in the App Store in English in the U.S., with more languages to come.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
