Using Gboard is great, but that’s only in portrait orientation. When using it in landscape orientation, the keyboard just stretches across the screen. It makes typing awkward and frustrating. Sure, we used to have physical keyboards on phones that we used in landscape, but those phones had between 3.5-inch and 4-inch screens. Now that phone screens are almost pushing 7-inches, it makes landscape typing a pain.
But, Gboard could split when in landscape
While Google hasn’t really made its homegrown keyboard tablet-friendly, a recent leak shows that the company is trying to change that. Thanks to @RKBDI on Twitter, we have some leaked screenshots of what Gborad will look like when split for landscape orientation. These screenshots are available on Telegram, and we see the keyboard in both light and dark themes. As expected, instead of being stretched to fit the canvas, half of the keys are pushed over to the left, and the others are on the right. This allows the hands to rest in a more natural position on the phone when typing. The top bar of tools isn’t split, however. This means that accessing things like the settings or clipboard will still require you to stretch your fingers across the screen. As for the spacebar, it stretches across the screen as well. This means that in order to tap the spacebar, you’ll need to do a stretch.
We don’t know when this will arrive
For the time being, this feature is not available to the public, as the company is still testing it out. The feature is hidden deep within the app’s code, and it takes a lot of tech wizardry to activate it. However, when it launches, it’ll most likely arrive for Gboard beta testers first. If you’re on the Gboard beta version, you should keep an eye out. We can draw a line from this feature to the fact that Google is focusing more on tablets. While you’ll be able to split your keyboard using your phone in landscape, this feature could also be useful when using a tablet. We can’t deny that it will be utilized on Android tablets and foldables when it launches.
