Strange Gboard bug temporarily breaks glide typing, here’s how to fix it [Update]

Ben Schoon | Sep 14 2018 - 6:43 am PT

Over the past 24 hours or so, users have started noting a strange issue with Google’s Gboard keyboard on Android, and it essentially breaks glide typing.

Multiple threads on Reddit over the past day have seen users noting that Gboard’s glide typing feature is acting up. Glide typing, if you’re unfamiliar, is Google’s take on the popular swipe typing method that has been a staple of many third-party Android keyboards over the years. It’s certainly a handy feature, and that’s why it’s frustrating when it doesn’t work correctly.

Update: Google has responded to the situation with the following statement:

We’re aware of a bug that affects glide typing accuracy in Gboard. We’re working on a fix; in the meantime, force-quitting Gboard or rebooting your phone may provide a temporary solution.

Update #2: Google has updated its statement, saying that rebooting your smartphone or force stopping the Gboard app will permanently fix this problem.

Users note that glide typing itself still works, but the results it brings up are often way different from what was intended. There’s no specific pattern to this, but it makes it essentially impossible to properly type out a message on the first try. On the 9to5Google team, I’m the only one that has noted this bug personally, and it’s been on a Galaxy Note 9 in my case. This seems to be a bug that affects multiple devices, even though many cases are of it happening on the Pixel 2/XL.

It’s unclear what’s causing this, but it seems like some sort of server-side bug and it doesn’t seem related to the battery saver bug that popped up yesterday. Hopefully, Google will roll out a proper fix ASAP.

In the meantime, there are a couple of methods that seem to fix the problem if your device is affected. For one, you can simply force stop the Gboard app through your settings. Alternatively, clearing the app’s cache or even a simple reboot of your phone should solve the problem, at least temporarily. For me, opening the Gboard app and swiping it from recents seems to have done the trick.