The holidays (and CES) are over and the many of Google's app teams are back in the full swing of releasing updates. Gboard's latest version hit this morning few directly visible changes outside of minor wording and color changes. However, there are some interesting things that can be gleaned from wandering through a teardown of the apk.

Teardown

Disclaimer: Teardowns are based on evidence found inside of apks (Android's application package) and are necessarily speculative and usually based on incomplete information. It's possible that the guesses made here are wrong or inaccurate. Even when predictions are correct, there is always a chance that products could change or may be canceled. Much like rumors, nothing is certain until it's officially announced and released.

The features discussed below are probably not live yet, or may only be live for a small percentage of users. Unless stated otherwise, don't expect to see these features if you install the apk. All screenshots and images are real unless otherwise stated, and images are only altered to remove personal information.

New emoticons

A new and much larger batch of emoticons is coming to Gboard. Titles for fourteen different categories were added (plus one for "Recents"), some containing as few as two emoticons and another coming in with twenty-four. You'll find a lot of the same common themes found in emoji, like various emotions and expressions, animals, and utility emoticons like pointers.

Emoticons, unlike emoji, are made up of a few symbols from various languages that form a picture, much like the classic Shruggie. When these are enabled, the categories will appear in the symbol keyboard.

New categories will appear here.

strings

Possible experiments and changes

Many of Google's apps have a constant string of small experiments running in various stages, and Gboard is possibly one of the most active examples. Some of these experiments are controlled by flags managed deep within the app's code while others are more casually listed in plain text. I skip most of these, but this version did have a few interesting hints at some of the things that are being tested or may be enabled in the future. I'll keep these short since each one is based on just a single name for context.

Whatsapp sticker support

Gboard may be building some integration with Whatsapp to display the IM platform's own stickers, or maybe this is just for sending Gboard's own stickers to Whatsapp using the more efficient WEBP format. I don't know enough about Whatsapp's sticker situation, so I'm just kinda guessing here.

<bool name="enable_whatsapp_sticker_webp">false</bool>

Make A GIF output in MP4

It appears the Make A GIF feature may be testing output in MP4, probably so videos can be smaller and look better than they would in a standard animated GIF.

<bool name="enable_make_a_gif_mp4_output">false</bool>

Flogger?

I'm not touching this one...

<bool name="enable_flogger">true</bool>

Emoji first...or not

It seems there's some consideration over the order of emoji versus other media in the universal search. Even though the flag says emoji aren't first, they currently are positioned at the beginning. Perhaps that will be changing?

<bool name="should_show_emojis_before_other_media_in_universal">false</bool>

Colored notifications

It's not terribly exciting, but there's also a switch to determine if some or all notifications should be shown in color. Evidently, the answer is Yes, but perhaps that may change in the future.

<bool name="show_colored_notification">true</bool>

New languages

With new versions comes support for more languages. While it's hard to identify each and every one, I can at least show the list of the names added and hopefully you'll recognize one that matters to you or those in your life. Some of these languages may not be live yet, but the names are present in resources, so they're pretty obviously coming. (Sorry, some names and letters are lost as a result of software that doesn't support all alphabets, which is why they have question marks or boxes in your browser.)

Language tag

  • Tai Dam [blt]
  • Chokwe [cjk]
  • Nuosu [ii]
  • Kok Borok [trp]
  • Vasavi [vas]

Localized Subtype Locale

  • आहिराणी [ahr_XT]
  • अंगिका [anp_XT]
  • بلتی [bft_PK]
  • Banggai [bgz_ID]
  • भीली [bhb_XT]
  • कन्नौजी [bjj_XT]
  • Tày Đăm [blt_XA]
  • Betsimisaraka [bmm_MG]
  • Koronadal B'laan [bpr_PH]
  • بختیاری‬ [bqi_IR]
  • براہوئی [brh_XT]
  • Basari [bud_TG]
  • Valencià [ca_XQ]
  • Laiholh [cnh_MM]
  • डोटेली [dty_XT]
  • ߖߎߟߊ [dyu_XF]
  • Efik [efi_NG]
  • Fɔ̀ngbè [fon_BJ]
  • Oromoo [gax_ET]
  • गोड़वाड़ी [gdx_XT]
  • Taetae ni Kiribati [gil_KI]
  • گوجری [gju_XT]
  • गुजरी [gju_XU]
  • गोंडी [gno_XT]
  • గోండీ [gno_XU]
  • کالامی [gwc_PK]
  • آزرگی [haz_AF]
  • Hadiyyisa [hdy_XA]
  • हलबी [hlb_XT]
  • ହଲବୀ [hlb_XU]
  • ہندکو [hnd_XT]
  • ہندکو [hno_XT]
  • Hawu [hvn_ID]
  • Nuosuhxop [ii_XA]
  • ꦧꦱꦗꦮ [jv_XF]
  • Xasongo [kao_ML]
  • कौरकू [kfq_XT]
  • ᦅᧄᦺᦑᦟᦹᧉ [khb_CN]
  • कोंकणी [knn_XT]
  • कुड़ुख़ [kru_XT]
  • Kambaatissa [ktb_XA]
  • Kilendu [led_CD]
  • Kaili Ledo [lew_ID]
  • Mɛnde [men_SL]
  • Bahasa Bangka [mfb_ID]
  • Mamasa [mqj_ID]
  • Mundaŋ [mua_TD]
  • Ekaiairũ Naoero [na_NR]
  • Elomwe [ngl_MZ]
  • Li Niha [nia_ID]
  • پہاڑی [phr_XT]
  • Bare'e [pmf_ID]
  • Runasimi [quh_BO]
  • Kréol Réyoné [rcf_RE]
  • ꤷꤼꥋ ꤺꤲ꥓ [rej_XF]
  • कामता [rkt_XT]
  • Sakalava [skg_MG]
  • سرائیکی [skr_XR]
  • سرائيڪ [skr_XS]
  • سرائيڪ [skr_XT]
  • शेखावाटी [swv_XT]
  • ܣܘܪܝܝܐ [syc_IQ]
  • ꠍꠤꠟꠐꠤ [syl_XT]
  • तामाङ [taj_XT]
  • KʌThemnɛ [tem_SL]
  • تاتی [tks_IR]
  • ককবরক [trp_IN]
  • মুন্ডা [unr_XT]
  • વાસવી [vas_XF]
  • वासवी [vas_XT]
  • वागड़ी [wbr_XT]
  • وڼېڅي [wne_PK]
  • मेरवारी [wry_XT]
  • ייִדיש [ydd_IL]
  • Gangjdoj [zyj_CN]

Subtype Locale

  • Angika [anp_IN]
  • Balti [bft_PK]
  • Banggai [bgz_ID]
  • Tai Dam (Tai Viet) [blt_VN]
  • Tai Dam (Latin) [blt_XA]
  • Northern Betsimisaraka Malagasy [bmm_MG]
  • Koronadal Blaan [bpr_PH]
  • Bakhtiari [bqi_IR]
  • Ntcham [bud_TG]
  • Valencian [ca_XQ]
  • Hakha Chin [cnh_MM]
  • Jula [dyu_XF]
  • Efik [efi_NG]
  • Fon [fon_BJ]
  • Southern Oromo [gax_ET]
  • Kiribati [gil_KI]
  • Kalam Kohistani [gwc_PK]
  • Hazaragi [haz_AF]
  • Hadiyya (Latin) [hdy_XA]
  • Hawu [hvn_ID]
  • Nuosu (Yi) [ii_CN]
  • Nuosu (Latin) [ii_XA]
  • Yiddish (US) [ji]
  • Javanese (Aksara Jawa) [jv_XF]
  • Xaasongaxango [kao_ML]
  • Tai Lue (New Tai Lue) [khb_CN]
  • Kambaata [ktb_XA]
  • Lendu [led_CD]
  • Ledo Kaili [lew_ID]
  • Mende (Sierra Leone) [men_SL]
  • Bangka Malay (Indonesia) [mfb_ID]
  • Mamasa [mqj_ID]
  • Mundang [mua_TD]
  • Nauruan [na_NR]
  • Lomwe (Mozambique) [ngl_MZ]
  • Nias (Indonesia) [nia_ID]
  • Pamona [pmf_ID]
  • South Bolivian Quechua [quh_BO]
  • Réunion Creole [rcf_RE]
  • Rejang [rej_XF]
  • Sakalava Malagasy [skg_MG]
  • Saraiki (Urdu Arabic) [skr_XR]
  • Saraiki (Sindhi Arabic) [skr_XS]
  • Classical Syriac [syc_IQ]
  • Temne (Sierra Leone) [tem_SL]
  • Tati [tks_IR]
  • Kok Borok (Bengali) [trp_IN]
  • Vasavi (Devanagari) [vas_IN]
  • Vasavi (Gujarati) [vas_XF]
  • Wanetsi [wne_PK]
  • Yiddish (Israel) [ydd_IL]
  • Youjiang Zhuang (China) [zyj_CN]

Variant

  • Brahui [brahui]
  • Bulu-Bene [bulu_bene]
  • Kichwa [chimborazo_highland_kichwa]
  • Dagaare [dagaare]
  • Dotyali [dotyali]
  • Dungan [dungan]
  • East Franconian [east_franconian_german]
  • Hani [hani]
  • Hindko [hindko]
  • Kirmanjki [kirmanjki]
  • Limbu [limbu]
  • Romanian [romanian]
  • Southern Kurdish [southern_kurdish]
  • Tamang [tamang]
  • Urum [urum]

Variant Transliteration

  • abc → अवधी [awa]
  • abc → कामता [rkt_deva]

QWERTY Variants

  • QWERTY (^) [with_circumflex]
  • QWERTY (-) [with_hyphen]

Download

The APK is signed by Google and upgrades your existing app. The cryptographic signature guarantees that the file is safe to install and was not tampered with in any way. Rather than wait for Google to push this download to your devices, which can take days, download and install it just like any other APK.

Gboard - the Google Keyboard Developer: Google LLC
Price: Free
4.5
Download