Google’s keyboard app, Gboard, rolled out a new beta version to users. A quick teardown of Gboard 10.2 revealed work on expanding the new theme to other keyboard colours along with a slew of new features in development.
As with any app teardown, it’s important to take things with a grain of salt. Teardowns involve decompiling app files and looking through the code for new features. Often, these new features are works-in-progress and could change significantly before release, or never launch at all. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what Google’s got in the pipeline for Gboard.
First up, 9to5Google’s teardown spotted Gboard’s new theme on more keyboard colours. For context, Google’s been working on a refreshed Gboard design for some time — it hasn’t fully rolled out to Gboard beta users yet, however. That design is now available on more keyboard themes and colours. Additionally, 9to5 spotted a new intro prompt for the theme: “Meet a new theme for your keyboard.”
With the new Gboard design spreading to other keyboard themes, it could mean Google’s preparing a full release of the new design.
9to5 also found evidence of a new feature for Gboard’s image copying capabilities. Currently, Gboard supports copying images and text, and version 10.2 is working to add screenshots to the Gboard clipboard as well. It seems it will work by accessing screen grabs when users capture them, then surface those images in supported apps.
Finally, Google appears to be working on an expandable suggestion menu. Along with the standard suggestion bar available in Gboard now, a future version of the keyboard will let users expand the suggestion bar with a tap to get more suggestions.
Keep in mind that these features aren’t exactly live yet, but could arrive in a future update.
Source: 9to5Google
