Gboard - the Google Keyboard

Review by eFreeware

The most distinctive thing about Gboard is that it is not really one typing method. It is a keyboard that carries several at once: you can slide a finger from letter to letter, dictate, write by hand in cursive or print, and search emojis or GIFs without leaving whatever you are writing in. Most keyboards ask you to pick a lane. This one keeps the lane open and lets you switch mid-sentence.

Google develops it and offers it free, with no ads and no in-app purchases. The install numbers are the part that stands out even more: more than 10 billion installs and a 4.5 average across roughly 18.8 million ratings. That is not a niche tool with a devoted following; it is the default surface for a very large share of Android typing.

So who is it for? I would say anyone who types a lot on a phone and wants more than a plain QWERTY row. The features are broad rather than specialized: bilingual households, people who write in scripts that are awkward to tap out letter by letter, and anyone who sends a lot of reactions rather than full sentences will find something here. If you want a keyboard that does one thing with unusual depth, this is built the other way, as a wide set of tools.

Typing without tapping every key

Glide Typing is the headline input method: you slide your finger from letter to letter and the word forms underneath. The appeal is obvious for one-handed use, when your thumb is doing the work and precision tapping is slow. It is the kind of feature that either clicks with your muscle memory or does not, and the only way to know is to try it for a day.

Voice typing covers the opposite case, dictating text when your hands are busy or when a thought is faster spoken than typed. Handwriting sits between the two, accepting cursive and printed letters written directly on the keyboard. That last one matters for scripts where a tap-based layout is cramped, and it is a genuine alternative rather than a novelty.

The small gestures are where the design shows its age in a good way: sliding across the space bar moves the cursor, and sliding left from the delete key removes several words at once. Neither is flashy, but both replace fiddly repeated taps. The developer also points out that you can keep a number row visible and show symbol hints on the keys for long presses, both switched on in preferences.

Emojis, GIFs and translation in the same bar

Emoji search and GIF search are built into the keyboard, so the reaction you want is a search away instead of a scroll through a long grid. For anyone who communicates mostly in images, that is the difference between sending the right GIF and sending whatever was closest. It is a small thing that quietly changes how a conversation flows.

Translation is the more ambitious addition. The developer says you can translate as you type, inside the keyboard itself, which means a message in another language does not require a separate app and a copy-paste round trip. I would expect this to be most useful for short, practical exchanges rather than anything nuanced.

Multilingual typing is the feature I would single out for bilingual users. Instead of manually switching languages, the keyboard autocorrects and suggests from every language you have enabled. If you regularly mix two languages in one message, that removes a constant, low-level annoyance. The supported list runs to hundreds of language varieties, from Afrikaans and Arabic to Yoruba and Zulu, so most readers will find their language covered.

On a watch, and on a very large phone

Gboard also runs on Wear OS, with glide typing, voice typing and emoji entry on the watch itself. Typing on a watch screen is a compromise by nature, but voice dictation and emoji cover most of what anyone actually wants to send from a wrist. The supported watch languages are broad, including Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Polish, Russian and Vietnamese among many others.

On the other end of the size scale, one-handed mode pins the keyboard to the left or right of the screen, which is the practical answer to a phone that is too wide for a thumb to cross. You can pick a theme with key borders or without. Neither changes what the keyboard does, but both are the kind of adjustment people make once and then stop thinking about.

The most recent addition is custom stickers, created and shared from inside Gboard. The developer says Pixel Studio powers it, and that it runs on Pixel 9 and later in three languages, in some countries. That is a narrow rollout, and it is the one feature here most readers will not be able to use yet.

What you need before installing

The app is free, carries no ads and lists no in-app purchases.

The requirements worth knowing about are about hardware and platform rather than money. Handwriting, emoji search and GIFs are not supported on Android Go devices, which is the lightweight Android build for budget hardware. If your phone runs Android Go, you lose three of the features discussed above.

The custom sticker tool has its own requirements: a Pixel 9 or newer, and one of three languages, in selected countries. Everything else in the app is available across the supported language list and on Wear OS.

Where Gboard fits into your phone

The clearest fit is anyone who treats typing as a daily, high-volume activity. If you answer messages in two languages, dictate notes while walking, or send reactions more often than paragraphs, the breadth here is the point. The translation and multilingual features in particular are hard to replicate with a simpler keyboard.

It also suits people who want the keyboard to stay out of the way. No ads and no purchases mean there is nothing to dismiss or pay past, and the gesture shortcuts reward a little learning with fewer taps. That combination is why I would expect it to work well as a set-and-forget default.

The narrower cases are worth naming honestly. If you are on a Pixel 9 or newer and want the sticker tool, availability depends on your language and country. And if you want a keyboard with an unusual, opinionated take on typing, this is a broad toolkit rather than a specialist one.

A keyboard worth making your default

Gboard earns a recommendation on breadth and on the fact that it costs nothing and shows no ads. Glide typing, voice dictation, handwriting, emoji and GIF search, in-keyboard translation and multilingual autocorrect are a lot of capability in one place, and the gesture shortcuts and one-handed mode make it comfortable on both small and large screens.

The caveats are specific rather than general. Android Go users lose handwriting, emoji search and GIFs. The custom sticker feature is limited to Pixel 9 and newer, in three languages, in selected countries. Everything else is available widely, including on Wear OS.

I would suggest it to anyone who types a lot on Android and wants translation and search built into the keyboard rather than bolted on. The install base and the 4.5 average suggest that judgment is widely shared. If you are on Android Go or want the newest sticker feature today, check your device and region first.

What's new

• Create and share custom stickers quickly within Gboard. This feature is powered by Pixel Studio and is available on Pixel 9+ devices in English, Japanese, and German in selected countries. • Download the beta version to give feedback on upcoming improvements https://goo.gl/8Ksj7x