Gboard review: Google's keyboard covers the everyday basics, on Google's terms

The short answer

Gboard is Google's on-screen keyboard for Android. It replaces the keyboard you type messages, emails and searches with.

My verdict: for most people it's a safe choice, and if your phone already uses it there's little reason to switch away. It covers the ways people actually enter text (tapping, swiping, speaking, writing by hand) and it adds two things that matter a lot to people who type in more than one language. You pay nothing to install it. The catch is the obvious one with any keyboard. It sees everything you type, so choosing it means trusting Google with that.

That trade will be fine for many readers. For some it settles the question straight away.

Four ways to get words down

Most people judge a keyboard on input, and Gboard gives you four ways to do it. Tapping is the default. Glide Typing lets you drag one finger from letter to letter without lifting it, then the keyboard works out the word. That's handy for one-handed typing on a bus or replying while walking.

Voice typing is for dictation. You talk and the text appears, which helps with longer messages or when your hands are busy. Then there's handwriting: the developer says it reads both cursive and printed letters, so you can write on the screen with a finger.

Handwriting will matter to a smaller group of people. If you write in a script that's awkward on a standard layout, or you just think better with a pen than with keys, it's useful. For everyone else it's a mode you'll switch on once and forget about. None of this is new for a phone keyboard, but having all four in one app means you won't need a separate tool for any of them.

Typing in more than one language

For many readers, this should decide it. Gboard lets you enable several languages and then corrects and suggests words from any of them, with no manual switching. Plenty of people write a work email in English and a family message in Spanish or Hindi in the same hour. On a keyboard that only corrects one language at a time, that means constantly flipping layouts or fighting autocorrect.

The second feature is translation inside the keyboard itself. You type in one language and Google Translate converts it as you go, so you don't have to copy text into a separate app and paste it back. That suits quick replies to someone who doesn't share your language, rather than anything you need to be precise about.

Both features come from Google's language tools. Translation in particular is a Google Translate feature built into the keyboard, so it's only as useful to you as Google's service is.

Emoji and GIFs

Gboard also has search for emoji and for GIFs. Emoji search means typing a word to find the face or symbol you want, instead of scrolling through hundreds of pages. GIF search lets you find a reaction clip and drop it into a chat without leaving the conversation.

Whether these matter depends on how you message. If your group chats run on reaction GIFs, having search built into the keyboard is a convenience. If you send plain text and the odd thumbs up, they're just extra buttons. Like translation, GIF search pulls its results through Google rather than working on its own.

What it costs, and what it asks

No price is asked to install Gboard. On money alone that's an easy offer: the input methods, the multilingual correction and translation all come without a fee to unlock them.

It's also about as widely used as an app can be, with Play showing more than 10,000,000,000 installs. That doesn't make it right for you, but it does mean you'll find plenty of help if a setting confuses you.

The real cost isn't money. A keyboard handles passwords, private messages, search terms and everything else you type, and this one is made by Google, with features that rely on Google services. If you already use Google's apps for mail, maps and search, this changes little. If you've been keeping Google at arm's length, a keyboard is a big thing to hand over.

Who should look elsewhere

Skip it if keeping Google out of your typing is the priority. That's a reasonable choice, and no feature here makes up for it if it matters to you.

Also skip it if you want a bare keyboard and nothing else. Gboard is built around extras such as GIF search, emoji search and translation, and if you never send a GIF or switch languages, you're getting a lot of keyboard for not much use.

For everyone else, and especially anyone who types in two or more languages, it's a sound default. It scores 4.1 rather than higher because the price of entry is trusting Google with your keystrokes, and its most distinctive features (translation, GIF search) depend on that same company's services.