Gboard v7.1 beta adds auto-spacing after punctuation, new languages and dialects, etc

Gboard v7.1 beta adds auto-spacing after punctuation, new languages and dialects, etc

Google constantly works on the regular updates for its services. Now, they have brought a new beta version of their keyboard app for Android i.e. Gboard. Google has silently rolled out Gboard beta 7.1 update to users that has revealed some new features and improvements. The new Gboard update brings several new features including Auto-spacing, new emojis, GIF making, new languages and dialects, handwriting settings and more. The latest beta update also adds support for the next major Android releases as well.

At the tail end of 2017, a teardown of the Gboard app provided clues that a new feature would automatically insert spaces after each punctuation. Now, with March coming to a close, that feature is going live with the v7.1 update.

By default, auto-space after punctuation is disabled, but it can be turned on by opening the Gboard settings and finding the switch located in the Text correction page.

Auto-spacing is pretty simple; if you type a standard punctuation, Gboard will automatically add a space after it. This includes the comma, period, exclamation, question, colon, and semi-colon. If you happen to type a space after the punctuation, Gboard is smart enough to ignore the first one.

Note: It seems to take a few hours for features to activate after installation of a Gboard update. If you don’t have the auto-space option available when you check, try again in a few hours. It’s also possible this is a staged rollout, but there’s no clear evidence of that yet.

New Handwriting Keyboard

Earlier, Gboard 6.8 added a handwriting keyboard feature. As you scribble through the keyboard, it provides users with more space to input text. Now with the upcoming update, it gets “Handwriting settings” which might allow users to set the speed of scrolling and also the ability to set the thickness of strokes.

Emojis

Emoji 11.0 is set to release later this year and Google is preparing support for some of the upcoming emojis in the Gboard with the update. The latest additions in the Emojis are centered around superheroes and supervillains in male/female versions and multiple skin tones as well.

New and renamed languages

Almost every Gboard update brings a set of new languages, and this one doesn’t appear to be any different.