Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- An Android Authority teardown has revealed that Gboard could let you hide the comma and period keys.
- This would be in line with Apple’s iPhone keyboard, which hides these keys.
- This would be a strange decision, and we hope Google doesn’t enable it by default.
Apple made the baffling decision a few years ago to hide the comma and period keys on its iPhone keyboard. Now, it looks like Google could offer this same “feature” in Gboard for Android, and I’m not sure why.
An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
We dug into a recent beta version of Gboard for Android (version 15.2.03.736047990-beta-arm64-v8a) and discovered that Google is adding an option to hide the period and comma buttons. We were able to activate this option, which forces users to tap the “?123” key to find the comma and period keys. Check out the screenshots below.
I’m not quite sure about the logic behind this move. One possibility is that Google is adding this option so iPhone users switching to Android feel more at home. It’s also possible that Google thinks this makes for a more streamlined experience. Either way, it means that these crucial punctuation marks are now hidden behind two taps instead of one.
Colleague Rita El-Khoury previously argued that Apple’s decision has resulted in poor punctuation online:
See, even the most grammar-fanatic user, like me, ends up dreading using punctuation when it takes extra taps to add it. I’ve noticed this so often because I always use Gboard on my Android phones, so I punctuate my sentences properly. But on the rare occasion that I dig out my test iPhone 13 to check an app or feature, I end up hating every second of my typing experience because of how tedious it is to add periods or commas to my sentences. So I start skipping them here and there — sometimes, everywhere.
In any event, I really hope that Google doesn’t enable this option by default as it would make for a frustrating typing experience. Users can double-tap the space bar to quickly add a period, but there isn’t an equivalent option for the comma symbol. Nevertheless, apps like HeliBoard show that there are a few quality Gboard alternatives out there.
