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If you have used Gboard on Android for any length of time, you likely know the trick that allows you to scrub your finger left or right across the spacebar to move the cursor. It is a handy feature for quick fixes, but it has always felt a bit incomplete. You can go side-to-side, but if you need to jump up three lines to fix a typo in the previous paragraph, you are stuck tapping the screen and hoping your finger lands in the right spot.
According to a new report from Android Authority, that frustration might soon be a thing of the past. A new “Cursor Mode” has been discovered in the latest Gboard beta that effectively turns your entire keyboard area into a virtual trackpad, giving you full, unrestricted control over your text input.
A true trackpad for your phone
The feature, uncovered by AssembleDebug in Gboard version 16.8.2, significantly expands on the existing gesture control. Instead of just sliding horizontally along the spacebar, this new mode allows you to long-press the spacebar to activate a dedicated “trackpad” zone.
Once triggered, the keys fade away (or get covered by the overlay), and you can drag your finger in any direction—up, down, left, or right. This means you can finally navigate through a long email or a Google Doc with the same fluidity you’d expect from a laptop trackpad. The report even notes that you can drag your cursor outside of the Gboard area entirely, which is a massive win for users on large-screen foldables or tablets where the text field might be far away from your thumb.
It is also worth noting that this feature catches Gboard up to iOS, which has had a similar trackpad implementation for years. While Gboard’s current horizontal scrub is useful, this full-motion trackpad is the version of the feature many have been waiting for.
As with all features hiding in the code, there is no official release date just yet. However, given how functional it appears to be in testing, we wouldn’t be surprised to see this roll out to the stable channel sooner rather than later.
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