Google just announced the availability of an AI-enhanced version of Gboard, its smart keyboard app, that it claims will improve your productivity “by helping you type less.” The most interesting part of this new feature is that you can now draw an outline of an emoji with a finger on your screen & Gboard will search out the best match, which is then contextually included in your conversation or in your favorite messaging app.
The search giant has been infusing its app replacement for the Android keyboard with Artificial Intelligence (AI) tech of late & the latest release ups the ante even more. The app is now vastly better at correcting mistakes & will suggest entire phrases as you type, instead of just suggesting words as it had been doing.
The emoji search feature is built on existing functionality. In the middle of a conversation, Gboard already lets you type the name of an emoji or a sentiment such as a smile or frown, & it’ll be suggested by the app.
With the new version, you can also sketch a stick figure representation of something like a circle with ears or with horns, & Gboard will suggest a cat, girls with bunny ears, a devil… As you refine or add features to your drawing, the results are continually refreshed & you can choose from the suggestions of what the app thinks you’re looking for.
Google’s use of machine learning & machine intelligence is taking forefront in this version with the enhanced keyboard-based suggestions for whole phrases. This takes advantage of Google’s vast database of natural language usage, which lets it suggest what combinations of words are more likely to follow other words.
The app includes almost 200 languages & it supports multilingual typing, so Gboard will auto-correct & suggest with any of the languages you’ve enabled. The new version also adds the ability to resize & reposition the keyboard.
This version is originally available for the Android app, but the iPhone app (here) is slated to also get the new functionality soon.
Image Credit: Google
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