Gboard’s latest animated sticker pack celebrates American Sign Language

Ben Schoon | Oct 17 2018 - 7:58 am PT

Google’s Gboard is a fantastic keyboard for Android, and one of its most handy functions is the built-in GIF search and sticker packs. Today, a new sticker pack is debuting and it celebrates American Sign Language.

“Kiss Fist ASL” is a new sticker pack designed with the help of Jessica Flores, an artist and activist in the deaf community based out of San Francisco. This new sticker pack has two dozen different stickers available which all have a written phrase which, with the help of a face and some arms, also signs the message it depicts. Flores explains to Engadget:

Each sticker comprises an anthropomorphic phrase, complete with a face and two hands, that signs the phrase it embodies. So with the “Thank You” sticker, for example, the face is in the “O,” with two blue arms on either side. To symbolize “thank you,” it touches its chin with the fingers on the right hand, and then exposes the palm forward. This way, Flores said, both the hearing and the hard-of-hearing can understand the message.

Using the phrase to sign its meaning not only gets across the intended message to everyone, but it’s also an easy teaching opportunity. Flores, who didn’t grow up learning sign language, also saw the project as a chance to help the deaf and hard-of-hearing communicate online in another way saying that “text is almost never enough.” The pack even contains some ASL slang terms such as “Tru biz” which is similar to “Seriously!”

If you’re a Gboard user, you can access the “Kiss Fist ASL” sticker pack through the stickers section of the keyboard. Simply tap the “add” button off to the right side and the pack should be one of the first options available. Add it to your favorites for easy access.