Gboard Changes The Shortcuts Button, Breaks Symmetry

Following Gboard hitting 10 billion Play Store downloads yesterday, the Android keyboard has made a small change to the shortcuts button that lets you access various tools.

The row above your keyboard allows up to six shortcuts. To access everything else, you tap the icon in the top-left corner of the keyboard for the grid.

That 2×2 square icon was previously placed in a circle to match the button at the opposite end that’s usually for voice dictation, though you can drag something else there.

Old vs. new

That round container that had a Dynamic Color background has been removed, while the rounded squares are no longer hollow and now filled-in. It’s white or black (depending on the theme) to match the shortcuts to the right.

There’s no practical impact with this icon change, but it does visually impact the symmetry of the shortcuts row.

Gboard has been continually tweaking this icon over the years. Most recently, Google gave the button a bright Dynamic Color background. Before that, the icon was a 3×3 grid of circles, while it was an arrow for the longest time. The trend has been towards simplifying the shortcut.

2021 vs. 2022

This new shortcuts button hit beta earlier this month and it’s now widely rolled out to Gboard’s stable channel with version 14.9 following a server-side update.