Google Gboard to get AI-powered proofreading, emoji generator, and more

Google is working on adding new AI capabilities to its Gboard virtual keyboard app for Android. According to code found in the latest Gboard beta v13.3, the company plans to integrate generative AI into the keyboard to help users write better.

The new "Proofread with Gboard" feature will leverage generative AI to analyze the user's writing and suggest spelling, grammar, punctuation, and more corrections. It aims to provide an advanced proofreading experience compared to traditional spellcheck. This feature is currently limited to US English.

The Gboard keyboard on Android phones displays a 'Fix it' option above the keyboard after you finish typing a sentence. This offers suggestions to correct grammatical errors or other issues in the sentence you just typed. The keyboard is replaced with different proposed revisions to your sentence by tapping the option with the highlighted changes.

For example, if you incorrectly type "What are wrong with gboard?", Gboard may suggest fixes like "What is wrong with Gboard?" or "What's wrong with Gboard?". These options have thumbs-up/down buttons, and it asks for feedback on whether the suggestions are helpful. Watch the example here:

Another AI-powered capability in development is "Emogen", which allows users to generate custom emoji stickers by describing them with text prompts. The AI will then attempt to create stickers matching the descriptions. This offers more flexibility than Gboard's existing Emoji Kitchen, which is limited to mixing and matching existing emojis.

There are also signs that Google may add a tone suggestions feature that recommends changes to make text more formal, informal or match other tones. This would be similar to Bing Chat's Tone Selector options.

Along with AI upgrades, Gboard is getting new stylus support for handwriting, gestures and improved text input on large screens. As the name implies, users can handwrite directly into text fields instead of converting to text first.

Recently, Google Search got a built-in grammar checker. The search engine has added a grammar checker that allows you to find mistakes by typing sentences into the search bar.

These features are still in early testing and not widely available yet. Nevertheless, they demonstrate Google's interest in greatly expanding Gboard's capabilities using AI.

Via: 9to5Google