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Gboard 7.4 Brings Spell Check and More; Floating Keyboard, Minis Selfie Stickers Spotted in Teardown

Gboard 7.4 Brings Spell Check and More; Floating Keyboard, Minis Selfie Stickers Spotted in Teardown

By Sumit Chakraborty | Updated: 11 July 2018 18:45 IST

Highlights

Gboard to finally come with Spell Check fix
Digging into the APK has revealed the key changes
Gboard is said to be working on a new feature called Minis

Gboard, Google's own Android keyboard app, had now been updated (v7.4) with a revamped Spell Check feature, a Mini mode for Morse Code keyboard has switched to an adaptive icon. An APK teardown of the latest version of the app separately found it to be preparing to bring a new floating keyboard, selfie stickers called Minis, effects to Make-a-GIF, and a plethora of other features. Additionally, the app will also bring a followup to the dark theme that came with the last update (v7.3). Also, the sticker search will soon be available in more places, thanks to the addition of more languages support. The teardown has also claimed that even the Gboard will now support more languages.

You can download the APK file of the latest app (version 7.4.6.203705386) from APK Mirror to experience the new Gboard app features. Meanwhile, there isn't any certainty on when we can see the features uncovered through the APK teardown.

Earlier in May this year, several Gboard users had complained about the issues with the app's spell checker feature. As per a report in Android Police, the Gboard app now comes with a fix to the issue. The "What's New" banner in the Gboard app reportedly says that that the latest version will underline misspelled words. The banner adds that the feature can be turned off via Text Correction settings. Interestingly, folks at Android Police say that the spell checker is not working as of now, and there appears to be no option for this in the Text Correction settings - we had the same experience when we tried the app.

For Morse code keyboard users, the Gboard app now comes with a new mini keyboard that cuts the height of the dot and dash buttons by half. To access the new feature, go to Language Settings and tap on the Morse Code Keyboard. The report also says that the settings for the letter and word timeouts have been redesigned to enables users to modify timeout sliders directly on the page, instead of tapping on one of the items to open a dialog box.

Also, the Gboard app is getting the upgrade to an adaptive icon. However, the report says that there is a bug in the latest version of the app that automatically removes the icon from the app launcher. This happens even when the setting to display the launcher icon has been enabled.

Meanwhile, the version 7.4 of Gboard has revealed that a number of features are under development. The report decompiled the APK to see several lines of code that hint at possible upcoming features. It hints at an upcoming floating keyboard and the Mini selfie stickers. The floating keyboard is not an entirely novel concept, as several keyboard apps come with the feature. It essentially lets users move the on-screen keyboard so that the entire display can be used.

Minis, on the other hand, lets you capture selfies so that Google can turn the face into personalised cartoon characters. It is similar to the feature that arrived on Google Allo last year. Additionally, Gboard will generate a sticker pack of your Mini avatar with different emotions and activities.

Some other upcoming features spotted in the teardown include new special effects for the Make-a-GIF feature, and a follow-up to the dark theme. In the last update, one of the key improvements was a battery saver mode that saves your smartphone's battery while using the Gboard keyboard by switching to a dark theme and disabling some other features such as stickers and Bitmoji. However, the latest update adds more details, with a summary that explains power can be saved on OLED screens. Also, sticker search option on the app had added support for more languages. With the latest update, the Gboard app now appears to include a total of 17 languages. The Gboard app itself has now added support for more languages, including Bhili, Garo, and Gondi. And, if you type in Kana, syllabic Japanese script, Gboard now has more keys in this update. It is worth noting is that teardowns are speculative in nature as the app may or may not get the same features in its next update.

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