Bid adieu to super-wide keys
Android software support for tablets has been coming a long way, and the top apps for tablets today really show what’s possible when devs prioritize this form factor. But typing on tablets has always been a little fraught — you’d think it would be easy thanks to how much space we have, but poorly optimized interfaces have often wasted that opportunity. Thankfully, Google has been making real efforts this year to improve things for tablets, like we saw with its release of Android 12L. Now the latest app to give some special attention to larger screens is Gboard, hopefully making text entry on tablets a little more comfortable.
When switching scren orientation, Gboard normally just widens the regular portrait mode keyboard for landscape usage. This made the keys wide, short, and hard to use efficiently — the keyboard’s height doesn’t seem to change either. 9to5Google noticed that the new Gboard v12.3 beta changes this behavior, making the keyboard and its keys taller in landscape orientation. With the keys now taking the shape of narrower and taller rectangles, typing on them becomes a bit easier.
The old Gboard interface on Android tablets
With this new release, Gboard now bears a striking resemblance to a 60 percent keyboard for computer: there’s dedicated keys for Tab, Caps Lock, and Shift, with key widths comparable to a physical keyboard. Along the right-hand side, buttons for Backspace, Enter/Search, and Shift are also in similar positions as before, but slightly taller. The button to add emoji is wider and taller too, but still placed on the left, next to the space bar.
The new Gboard interface on Android tablets
You’ll also notice the comma and period keys have moved from next to the space bar to beside “M,” where they usually live on a conventional keyboard. Their former home is now occupied by left and right arrow keys, which could come in handy when editing text.
People who prefer their tablet over a laptop for working and typing on the go will probably appreciate this change, thanks to the commonalities shared with conventional laptop and computer keyboards. This update is arriving now for beta testers, but you can jump the queue and sideload the update from APKMirror. If the new layout or typing on a touchscreen still doesn’t feel quite right, don’t hesitate to check out keyboard cases for your tablet.
