As Cyber Monday was wearing down, Google was already winding up some app updates. A new version of Gboard began rolling out late in the afternoon, and with it comes the long-anticipated handwriting support, meaning we can finally uninstall the separate handwriting keyboard. There are also some tweaks to the emoji picker. As we look to the teardown, there are signs of a new theme system with a few new options for more visual control, a new autospace feature, integration with the Motion Stills app, and more.

What's New

Official Changelog: (posted Dec 14, 2017) Handwriting support

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Hinglish-style support for 19 more Indian languages

20 new languages: Awadhi, Bambara, Bundeli, Emilian-Romagnol, Fulani, Gilaki, Hiligaynon, Jamaican Patois, Kumaoni, Lambadi, Lombard, Madurese, Minangkabau, Mazanderani, Nahuatl, Neapolitan, Norwegian (Nynorsk), Piedmontese, Sadri, Santali (Devanagari and Bengali), Sicilian, Sylheti, Venetian, and Zazaki Unofficial Changelog: (originally posted Nov 28, 2017) Handwriting keyboard

Visual changes to emoji picker

Handwriting keyboard

Left: Original handwriting keyboard. Right: Handwriting keyboard in GBoard.

Earlier this year, a teardown revealed Gboard would be adding handwriting support. That time has come with the release of v6.8 as the capabilities found in the separate handwriting keyboard have been ported over to Gboard. After testing it out for a bit, it's safe to say that very little has really changed in the process aside from a couple of navigation buttons.

Enabling the handwriting capabilities in Gboard isn't quite as obvious as they probably should be. You'll actually have to add the handwriting keyboard as a new keyboard layout. The easiest way to get there is to make sure Gboard is selected as your keyboard, then long-press the spacebar and tap on Language Settings -> Add keyboard. Simply pick the language you want to write in and look for the handwriting option in list.

You can change the order of the keyboards by dragging, if you like. Now you can switch between a regular keyboard and handwriting in the keyboard picker. (Note: I still have the old handwriting keyboard installed, so it appears at the bottom of the list in the last shot above.) A download of handwriting data may occur before you can use this mode.

Visual tweaks to emoji (for some)

If you use emoji, you're probably going to love this one. The emoji have been blown up to fill in almost all of the empty space between them. They're much easier to see and they look much better.

Unfortunately, this change seems to appear on only some devices. Based on my own tests and checking with a couple of other people, it seems to be limited to Nexus and Pixel devices (and probably anything else directly supported by Google, like Android One). Update: There are many varying reports, but it seems that keyboard height plays a role in this, and changing it might reveal larger emoji, but that's not the only factor.

If you're looking closely, you'll also notice that the 'draw emoji' button image has changed from a pen tool to a blob-moji. I guess they just had to rub some salt in the wounds of blob fans. /s

Teardown

Disclaimer: Teardowns are based on evidence found inside of apks (Android's application package) and are necessarily speculative and usually based on incomplete information. It's possible that the guesses made here are totally and completely wrong. Even when predictions are correct, there is always a chance that plans could change or may be canceled entirely. Much like rumors, nothing is certain until it's officially announced and released. Disclaimer: Teardowns are based on evidence found inside of apks (Android's application package) and are necessarily speculative and usually based on incomplete information. It's possible that the guesses made here are totally and completely wrong. Even when predictions are correct, there is always a chance that plans could change or may be canceled entirely. Much like rumors, nothing is certain until it's officially announced and released. The features discussed below are probably not live yet, or may only be live for a small percentage of users. Unless stated otherwise, don't expect to see these features if you install the apk.

Theme engine v3

Themes in Gboard are a great way to personalize your keyboard with a look suited to your personal style and tastes. There are now references to a third version of the theme feature, which may suggest users will have even more control over the look of their keyboards in the future.

strings

<bool name="enable_theme_v3_edge">true</bool>

<bool name="enable_theme_v3_google_icon_background_color">true</bool>

<bool name="enable_theme_v3_image">true</bool>

<bool name="enable_theme_v3_padding">true</bool>

<bool name="enable_theme_v3_shadow_color">true</bool>

<bool name="enable_theme_v3_visibility">true</bool>

true true true true true true

The options listed above are merely features that would presumably be available to change by users. There appear to be five options: Image, Padding, Shadow Color, Edge, and the background color of the Google icon. The last of those is a bit reminiscent of the customizable Google Search widget.

There are no visible signs of the new theme engine in the app yet, and there's no text or other indicators that an interface is complete for a new screen with the additional settings, so it's safe to say this isn't live yet. All we have is the version that offers to pick a regular keyboard background and choose if it should show key borders or not. Nevertheless, a new version with more options is clearly in the works.

Fullscreen handwriting keyboard

It's not enough to just port the handwriting keyboard into Gboard, now it's time to add features and improvements. It looks like the first thing that will happen is a toggle allowing users to switch between fullscreen mode and the current "half screen" version.



<string name="desc_switch_to_fullscreen_handwriting">Switch to fullscreen handwriting</string>

<string name="desc_switch_to_halfscreen_handwriting">Switch to half screen handwriting</string>



New icons (with descriptions) have been added that make it pretty clear users will be able to change modes, though that function doesn't seem to be available yet.

Motion Stills as GIFs

Have you tried the Motion Stills app by Google? If not, Gboard might have a new incentive to give it a shot. New text and an app icon indicate that users will be able to create and share GIFs through Gboard using the Motion Stills app.

strings

<string name="gif_category_string_make_a_gif">MAKE A GIF</string>

<string name="label_motion_stills_requirement">Google Keyboard requires Motion Stills to create and share GIFs.</string>

<string name="label_get_motion_stills">GET MOTION STILLS</string> <receiver android:name="com.google.android.apps.inputmethod.libs.search.gif.MotionStillsBroadcastForwarder" android:enabled="true" android:permission="com.google.android.apps.motionstills.permission.MAKE_A_GIF">

<intent-filter>

<action android:name="com.google.android.apps.motionstills.GIF_READY_FOR_GBOARD" />

</intent-filter>

</receiver>



It's not really clear exactly how the interaction will work, but based on a few layouts and other hints, it looks like the Motion Stills icon will appear as another category alongside emoji, stickers, and GIFs. It will probably include the Motion Stills app icon for quickly launching the app to create a new image, along with animations you've already created. Below is the icon that currently represents the Motion Stills category.

Autospace after punctuation

Software keyboards have been getting progressively smarter and more intuitive as time goes by. It's now common for keyboards to automatically capitalize the first letter of a sentence, correct obviously misspelled words, and even insert a period after a double-space. Gboard is about to adopt another similar behavior and automatically add a space after punctuation marks.

strings

<bool name="enable_autospace_after_punctuation">false</bool>

<string name="punctuation_colon">:</string>

<string name="punctuation_comma">,</string>

<string name="punctuation_exclamation">!</string>

<string name="punctuation_question">?</string>

<string name="punctuation_semicolon">;</string>

<string name="punctuation_sentence">.</string>

false : , ! ? ; .

The list is pretty typical, including the period, question, exclamation, comma, colon, and semicolon. Gboard won't be the first keyboard to do this, but it's a nice feature to have for slightly faster typing.

If I could throw in a request... Can we also get smart detection of the second quote in a sentence and add a space after that? I admit, most people don't use quotes as often as I do, but it would be cool and save another keystroke.

Download

The APK is signed by Google and upgrades your existing app. The cryptographic signature guarantees that the file is safe to install and was not tampered with in any way. Rather than wait for Google to push this download to your devices, which can take days, download and install it just like any other APK.

Version: 6.8.3.176803888 beta