Gboard’s New Google Assistant-Powered Enhanced Voice Typing Feature Being Pulled From Pixel Devices: Report

Many users who had earlier reported seeing the enhanced voice typing feature on their Pixel devices said they were unable to find it any longer.

By Tanishka Sodhi | Updated: 4 November 2020 13:47 IST

Google is reverting to the old voice typing settings for Gboard on Pixel devices

Highlights

Gboard’s enhanced voice typing feature had rolled out for Pixel users
It worked with Google Assistant to substitute typing
Google is reportedly reverting to its old voice typing setting

Google is pulling Gboard's enhanced voice typing feature from its Pixel devices, as per reports. The company had recently rolled out a Gboard update for some Pixel users that allowed them to enable enhanced voice typing with voice commands using Google Assistant. But the feature is reportedly being removed. Google is said to be reverting to the old voice typing settings after a very brief run with enhanced voice typing.

A report by 9to5Google indicates that the enhanced typing feature on Pixel phones was being removed; many users who had reported seeing the feature earlier said they could no longer access it. Enhanced voice typing using Google Assistant was available as an option on Gboard for Pixel 4, Pixel 4XL, Pixel 4a, Pixel 4a 5G, and Pixel 5 users. However, it hadn't rolled out for all users.

After Google was spotted testing the feature a few months ago, it started rolling out to a limited number of users this week. The update allowed users to enable enhanced voice typing with voice commands provided by Google Assistant. A ‘New!' banner appeared on Gboard after tapping the microphone icon, which said that users could ‘Save time typing' by using the Google Assistant feature.

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For example, users could utilise this feature to say “Clear” to delete text, instead of manually using the backspace key. They could also say “Send” to send a message, instead of clicking on the button.

Besides enhanced voice typing, an Auto punctuation option had also rolled out to users in the update. When enabled, it automatically added punctuation like commas, question marks, and exclamation marks while taking dictation. It is unclear if this feature has been removed as well.

It is possible that Google will roll out the enhanced voice typing feature again, this time to a wider audience, after addressing certain issues that may have popped up with the feature.

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