Gboard has long become more than a simple keyboard app. It also allows you to send rich media files like GIFs, emoji, ASCII symbols, stickers, and even little Google Search cards for quick reference when chatting. So many different options to choose from threaten to make the keyboard feel overcrowded; to help alleviate that, Google is testing a taller media picker for the new Gboard 8.4 release.

As you can see in the screenshots below, the taller keyboard lets you view many more emoji, stickers, and GIFs at once, although the added space naturally comes at the expense of real estate for the rest of the screen — Google Keep looks outright cramped. Right now, the taller keyboard is only available as an A/B test for a small number of users, so it might never get a wider rollout.

I don't want to imagine how a chat app looks with the tall keyboard.

We've been puzzled about the sudden loss of cross-device sync for dictionaries before when we investigated why cloud storage wasn't available on newer versions of Gboard. In a recent APK teardown of version 8.0, our own Cody Toombs already found some indicators that the automatic backup might be replaced by an import/export option, and this appears to go live with Gboard v8.4.

Although the option hasn't been enabled for us thus far, 9to5Google discovered how the feature works: Head to Gboard's dictionary settings and choose the language's dictionary you'd like to work with. There, in its three-dot overflow menu, you can select Export or Import, with the former exporting a "PersonalDictionary.zip" and the latter letting you choose a backup by launching the file manager.

To download the latest version, head to APK Mirror or to the Play Store through the widget below. Like we mentioned, you might not see any of the changes just yet, as they're not rolling out to everyone at the moment.

Via: 9to5Google