Before Gboard, I tried a number of third-party keyboards, from SwiftKey to Fleksy, on my iPhone 6s Plus, but none stuck the way Google's new entrant has.
That's because Gboard is not only a good keyboard — the fundamentals, such as touch-typing and glide-typing are sound — but having a Google search bar in any app, at any time, is a stroke of genius.
Today, Gboard expands to other countries, including Australia, Canada, India, and the U.K., to bring people beyond the continental United States into the fold. Like the default iOS keyboard, Gboard shows word suggestions atop the keys themselves. But to the very left of those suggestions is a small Google logo that, when tapped, opens a search bar that can be used information on practically anything. Results can then be copied and pasted into the text box.
Gboard can also search for images and GIFs, and there is a quick emoji search bar for finding the more obscure pictorials out there.
Gboard is available now from the App Store.
