Say hello to Gboard; Google's keyboard for iPhone

Gboard by Google

Google today launched a new app for iOS devices called Gboard. As the name suggests, Gboard (Google + Keyboard) is a keyboard from Google specially crafted for iPhone users. The key feature of Gboard is that it integrates Google search directly into the keyboard of any application. Just tap on the "G" icon on the keyboard and start searching, it's that simple. No more switching between different apps for finding the right info.

GBoard demo

Mr. Rajan Patel who is the head of product team which developed Gboard said:

We wanted to bring the best of Google to Gboard, so you’ll see Maps, Translate, image and video search, News and others. Initially, Gboard will not surface any information specific to you.

The app supports normal search, GIF search, emojis and Glide typing. All the information you search will be presented in a card format. You can use these cards by tapping on them and immediately all the info will be sent as a hyperlink. This can be used in multiple apps, be it email or conversation, notepad, WhatsApp and more. Here is a screengrab showing the functionality of Gboard from the official Google blog.

Gboard screengrab

We would like to see how many users download this app and get glued to it. A major drawback with Gboard is the absence of microphone/Siri for dictation of text. While you can use the microphone for giving inputs with Apple's default keyboard, it is not feasible with any other 3rd party apps. Apple does not allow access to the microphone by any other keyboard so some users might find it annoying.

Currently, Gboard is available for iPhone users only. We might see Google adding other operating systems in the near future. Also, as of now the application is available in English only and support for other languages will be added in coming iterations of the app, Google notes.

We tried to download the app from iTunes App Store but got to know that Gboard was not available at the Indian store yet. Google released its first version for U.S. customers only. We need to wait for official India release of Gboard to review it.

You can check out the official video which was uploaded by Google on YouTube here:

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