Gboard tested very rounded keys, we all hated it, and it’s been reverted

As a part of the Gboard Beta program, I recently opened up my keyboard on the Pixel 9 Pro XL to find a new setting that not only looked odd, but functionally stinks in every way: severely rounded keys. Now, don’t get me wrong – in the right setting, round keyboard keys looks pretty sweet.

I remember really enjoying the keyboard on the ill-fated Pixel Slate years ago. Those keys were of course physical in nature and completely round, but the same basic principle exists. When you round off keys that much, you lose physical real estate on the buttons themselves.

On a full-sized physical keyboard, this isn’t really a problem. On a palm-sized on-screen keyboard, however, this change not only doesn’t make sense – it actually makes using the keyboard pretty awful. And the reasoning is quite simple.

With a physical keyboard, you are using muscle memory to hit the general center of the key most times. As a person who types for a living, I don’t care whether the keys on my keyboard are perfect squares, complete circles, or something in-between. I can compensate quickly and make it work without much fuss.

On my phone’s screen, however, I need to look at where I’m poking to type things, and this is precisely where this new keyboard layout failed so hard. From a simple, visual standpoint, the keyboard keys on Gboard looked so freaking small even on the large screen of the Pixel 9 Pro XL after this change, and there was no redeeming quality to it whatsoever.

I’m sure the touch-sensitive areas for each key were actually the same, but my brain just couldn’t make peace with that while I was using the keyboard. Instead, I slowed my typing speed considerably because it felt like my targets were so much smaller. And for what? To get the keys to have a more Google-y pill shape? What was the point of this?

Frankly, this was a terrible UI change across the board, and it was even more frustrating that I couldn’t turn it off. Thankfully, as of this morning, the change was rolled back and my keyboard looks like a normal keyboard once again. I’m guessing Google got the message and retracted the change. Good call, Google. Good call.