Look at Gboard’s Super Cool New Voice Toolbar

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As a part of the new March Pixel Feature Drop we learned about earlier in the week, Google mentioned one feature that involved Gboard and a new “Voice Toolbar.” This was the first time Google had acknowledged this as a feature, even if it surfaced about a month ago in beta builds on a small number of devices. Now that the Feature Drop is official, this appears to be rolling out more widely and it looks pretty sweet.

I’m currently on Gboard in beta with build 15.1.05.726012951 and am seeing the new Voice Toolbar. If you aren’t, feel free to join the beta program for Gboard at this link. Once updated and you open the keyboard, tap on the voice typing icon and you should be welcomed with the prompts below to get started.

What is this Gboard Voice Toolbar? It’s an option for those who voice type frequently that would like to see more screen real estate, without the keyboard constantly showing. It’s also a slightly improved voice experience that will offer suggestions to auto-complete sentences or add emoji. You can even use some commands, like “Send” or “Clear” without having to touch any keys.

To activate it, you’ll hit the voice typing icon in Gboard and then press a new down-arrow icon next to it. This down-arrow button will shrink the keyboard into the Voice Toolbar at the bottom of your screen, where you can then speak away at your device. It’ll remain there unless you hit the keyboard button to expand to the full keyboard again, plus you can move the toolbar around.

As you’ll see in the image below, the Voice Toolbar can sit off to the left or right side of your screen, float in the middle, stick to the top, or head back to the bottom. All it takes is a flick to pin it up top or a swipe to the left/right areas to allow it to float there. When in toolbar mode, you’ll still have delete, keyboard, and menu keys to at least keep some handy buttons available.