Google Adds Languages, Emojis And Voice Typing To Gboard

Google has updated its Gboard keyboard app for iPhone with the addition of an extra 15 languages, Google Doodles, new emojis and voice typing functionality.

Gboard users can now add Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, Catalan, Hungarian, Malay, Russian, Latin American Spanish and Turkish to their language preferences by going to “Languages” > “Add Language.”

Gboard update

Google has also increased support for what associate product manager Alan Ni calls “the universal language”, i.e. emojis., with users now having access to the latest set from iOS 10.

Google Doodles are known to most people as the animations occasionally added on the Google search page to honour public holidays, anniversaries and notable people. They are “one of the Googley-est things about Google”, Ni says, and they are now available on Gboard.

On days when there’s a Doodle, the “G” button will animate and enable you to open the Doodle and search for more information about it.

Finally, there’s voice typing, allowing users to “say it faster”. Dictate messages directly on to Gboard by long-pressing the microphone icon on the space bar.

Google has also been hard at work on its own Android platform, building on the early success of its Pixel XL, which our very own Roland Moore-Colyer described as “a brilliant smartphone”.

The bad news for Google is that Android has been plagued by malicious apps over the last few weeks and months. For example, there was the discovery of a modified Faketoken mobile banking trojan and, most recently, the news that users are being tricked into downloading a fake PornHub app that is actually ransomware.

In other Google news, the company has recently agreed to a music and movie piracy crackdown, announced a significant leap forward in its Project Loon initiative and started a partnership with Raspberry Pi.

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