Gboard preps ‘Seamless voice typing’ that lets you instantly start talking

Instead of having to manually initiate voice typing every time, Gboard is working on a more “seamless” option on Android.

About APK Insight: In this “APK Insight” post, we’ve decompiled the latest version of an application that Google uploaded to the Play Store. When we decompile these files (called APKs, in the case of Android apps), we’re able to see various lines of code within that hint at possible future features. Keep in mind that Google may or may not ever ship these features, and our interpretation of what they are may be imperfect. We’ll try to enable those that are closer to being finished, however, to show you how they’ll look in case that they do ship. With that in mind, read on.

Gboard 13.8, which just hit beta, features strings describing a new “Seamless voice typing” capability. It is not yet live. When enabled, “voice typing will start automatically when keyboard is shown.” 

Today, dictation involves tapping a text field and then hitting the microphone icon in the top-right corner of Gboard. This two-stage process would be simplified to a single step with Seamless voice typing that allows you to start talking immediately.

This optional behavior that you can turn on/off in “voice settings” would build on how the Assistant voice typing toolbar persists across apps instead of Gboard opening the full keyboard every time you tap a text field. While Google remembers that the floating pill-shaped UI was used last, you still have to hit the microphone icon every time.

Assistant voice typing remains exclusive to Google phones. In theory, Seamless voice typing could work with the non-Pixel speech-to-text (“Faster voice typing”) that’s available to all Android devices.

Thanks to JEB Decompiler, from which some APK Insight teardowns benefit.