Gboard’s new Android replace ditches the interval and comma keys

A brand new over-the-air (OTA) software program replace is rolling out to Google’s Gboard app for Android, introducing two new setting toggles to the digital keyboard expertise: one for eradicating the comma key, and the opposite for eradicating the interval key.

As reported by 9to5Google, the replace seems to be rolling out in secure kind on Android gadgets with model 16.0 or newer of Gboard put in by way of the Google Play Store. Each new key desire choices are toggled on by default, preserving the preexisting Gboard key format and performing as an alternative as an opt-in characteristic for these seeking to manually allow an easier design.

These new settings to cover punctuation keys on Gboard will be discovered by navigating to Settings > System > Keyboard > On-screen keyboard > Gboard > Preferences > Keys > after which toggling the Comma key and/or the Interval key switches to the off place.

As soon as one or each of those settings are toggled off, the Gboard layout is dynamically shifted to accommodate the decreased variety of on-screen keys, with a barely wider house bar, and a newly-centered enter key taking on the house beforehand occupied by the devoted interval and comma keys.

A small however welcome Gboard change

The extra keyboard customization choices, the higher

On the floor, it sounds unusual to supply up toggles for disabling the interval and comma buttons of an on-screen smartphone keyboard. In any case, these two punctuation marks are among the many most commonly-used and foundationally necessary instruments inside the English language.

Nevertheless, in observe, the additional space-saving does permit for a cleaner keyboard look and a barely bigger house bar hit goal, with out really eradicating any typing performance. With the comma and interval keys disabled, you possibly can proceed to insert a interval by double-tapping the house key, and a comma will be inserted by tapping on the ?123 key after which choosing a comma from the secondary keyboard interface.

General, I am a fan of this small Gboard tweak, because it brings extra customization potential to Android’s native digital keyboard app. A part of the attraction of getting an on-screen keyboard is that it may be dynamically adjusted to go well with format preferences on a per-person foundation, and so I welcome any and all extra flexibility that will get roped into the expertise. The way in which I see it, the extra choices out there to the end-user, the higher, as long as they don’t seem to be unwittingly pressured upon anybody.