At the beginning of June, Google’s Gboard virtual keyboard app finally rolled out support for a split layout. If you’ve used larger-screened touch-oriented devices in the past decade, you likely know why this is such a big deal. Starting with the iPad years ago, the advent of split keyboard layouts has paved the way for usable touch-based keyboard input for devices with larger screens.
In the event that you’ve never actually used this sort of feature, the premise is pretty simple: split the standard keyboard layout in half and keep all keys in reach of the user’s thumbs even when holding a tablet it landscape mode. This sort of feature makes great sense on devices like tablets and convertibles, but it is also greatly needed for foldables as well.
The need for split keyboard layouts
Here’s how it plays out if you try to get productive on a folding phone like the Samsung Galaxy Fold pictured above. You accept the fact that the inner display is the one you want to use most times and having that display open is great, but when you go to reply to a text or email, you quickly realize the size of the screen in either landscape or portrait is a bit to wide to easily reach the middle portions of the keyboard.
This leaves you with the need for a smaller, split-up keyboard layout that you can actually use, and that – up until the Gboard update, at least – means you need to use the included keyboard that shipped with your device. That’s no knock on something like Samsung’s keyboard, but if you are like me, you have tons of saved passwords in Gboard that you likely rely on way more than you think. Having Gboard as your main keyboard is a pretty important thing, and up until the recent changes that finally brought split layouts to the Gboard app, it hasn’t been a viable option on folding phones.
Luckily, this new layout makes it workable to actually leverage Gboard on folding devices like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold lineup, and if it were around back when I took the Fold for a test drive, I might have stayed with it a bit longer. It’s no understatement to say that the lack of a split layout for Gboard was one of the primary frustrations I had with that device after settling in and trying to use it on a daily basis. Though I no longer use a foldable phone, the value in this update to Gboard is still exciting.
New features go hand-in-hand with the rumored Pixel Notepad
My primary source of excitement for Gboard’s split layout feature lies in the timing of the release alongside reinvigorated rumors surrounding the foldable Pixel Notepad. Though Google’s long-anticipated folding phone has faced numerous delays, there is an outside chance that this fall could be our official introduction to what would be my most-hyped Pixel phone yet. Right now we’re still firmly in rumor land, but the recent roll out of a foldable-focused feature for Google’s own keyboard at this point feels a bit too coincidental to be nothing.
Just a couple months ago, the Pixel Notepad was on the back burner and news of it had cooled down pretty swiftly. After Google unveiled their upcoming Pixel hardware lineup at Google I/O 2022 and no mention was made of the Pixel Notepad, it made most of us feel like the project was being pushed back indefinitely.
Recent changes in the Google Camera app and fresh new rumors have us reinvigorated, however, and it is beginning to feel like we could see the Pixel Notepad at Google’s fall hardware event after all. While I still feel it is unlikely, the timing of this split keyboard update with the new rumors makes me at least hopeful that this could happen.
The pieces are all definitely in place with Android 12L available and geared for larger screens, a full year of Tensor now under Google’s belt, and supply chains returning to some semblance of normalcy, maybe 2022 is finally the year we get a folding Google phone. Even with a similar camera setup to the Pixel 6a, I’d still be wildly interested in this device. The prospect of a great folding phone is still one that deeply intrigues me, but the trials I’ve had have always missed on the software side of things. The Pixel Notepad could solve that, and if it shows up this fall, I think there are plenty of users just like me willing to give it a go.
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