
Damien Wilde / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google may very well be gearing up so as to add a cursor mode to Gboard for simpler cursor motion and swiping.
- The Gboard app already has a glide cursor management function, however it doesn’t help simple line altering or scrolling.
- By holding down the area bar, customers will be capable to activate a digital trackpad for easy cursor motion in any path.
Gboard is a extremely customizable Android keyboard with huge gesture help, together with glide typing, path, and delete. To maneuver the cursor round in a textual content area, Android customers can faucet and maintain the insertion level and launch it in a selected spot. Alternatively, Gboard consists of glide cursor management, a function that lets customers transfer their cursor from left to proper by holding and swiping alongside the area bar.
This implementation at the moment lacks help for altering paragraphs or strains simply, however Gboard is perhaps including a devoted cursor mode for simpler cursor motion and scrolling in a future replace. We’ve uncovered the performance in model 16.8.2.867538971-beta-arm64-v8a of the Gboard app. We have been in a position to get an early have a look at the cursor mode function, which basically turns the Gboard keyboard space right into a digital trackpad.
After holding down the area bar, a digital contact space will take the place of the digital keys. Customers will see a digital cursor seem, and dragging the cursor across the display screen will transfer the textual content insertion level. In contrast to the present glide cursor management, this upcoming function is unrestricted. You possibly can drag the cursor in any path, and the software program even lets the cursor depart the Gboard space.
Because it at the moment stands, glide cursor management solely helps swiping from left to proper. To maneuver between strains and paragraphs, Gboard customers must hold swiping left or proper till they attain the tip of the road of textual content to regulate the cursor up or down. It’s not a sensible answer for scrolling or shifting between giant blocks of textual content because of this.
The brand new cursor mode solves this concern utterly, because the digital trackpad space will enable customers to scroll and transfer wherever. It’s like swipe typing, however for shifting your cursor. This might be significantly useful on giant telephones or foldables, the place it may be troublesome to maneuver the cursor close to the highest areas of the display screen.
It’s unclear whether or not this Gboard instrument would substitute the present glide cursor management function or just increase it. We additionally don’t know when, or if, Gboard’s new cursor mode would possibly launch. Nonetheless, it appears to deal with a key limitation of cursor management, and could be a welcome addition to Gboard.
⚠️ An APK teardown helps predict options which will arrive on a service sooner or later based mostly on work-in-progress code. Nonetheless, it’s attainable that such predicted options could not make it to a public launch.
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