Gboard - the Google Keyboard vs Today

The Google Keyboard supports swiping along the keyboard to spell out whole words.

After using a gesture a few times and clicking the correct word, Google Keyboard learns that the gesture should result in the word you've manually selected as the correct word. Swype doesn't seem to learn this, so even after 100 times clicking 'this' instead of 'thesis', it still produces 'thesis', where Google Keyboard learns that you meant to say 'this'.

Google Keyboard has material design themes the user can skin the keyboard with.

Hold down the key in the lower left hand corner and a keyboard if punctuation appears. Swipe over to the one you want, lift your finger, and the original keyboard pops back. It's very fast, and makes it much easier to spot the punctuation mark you want - instead of trying to squint at the secondary symbols in the keys.

This keyboard is not a free trial nor will it hold back any new features to sell you a paid version. The keyboard is completely 100% free.

While other keyboard options may be very functional, their visual design tends to differ from the rest of your Google device. The Google Keyboard was designed by Google and it looks like it.

Alternative keyboards tend to suck up system resources, often making them nearly unusable on older phones. Google Keyboard is very quick to open when typing and the keys rarely lag.

The keyboard has button that allows searching Google straight from the keyboard, and use the search results in the currently used app.

The GBoard has an emoji search that's very convenient, saves time looking for a specific one if you don't know/remember what category it's in.

The dynamic floating preview appears while gesture typing. Most gesture keyboards only show the preview above the keyboard in the suggested corrections. The dynamic floating preview is great because it makes it easier to gesture type by keeping your eyes focused on what you are typing.

For those that are used to typing on a Dvorak keyboard or prefer not to need multiple key presses to access special symbols they can enable these as additional quick switch options. Using the English PC layout for example gives the user a number row.

Makes it easier to type with no more than a thumb.

Google keyboard does not promise to be as "smart" as other keyboards besides offering a personalized dictionary. Surprisingly this is actually a good thing for some because with many "smart" keyboards predictions and corrections actually worsen over time. With Google Keyboard the experience will remain constant because it requires you to manually "touch again to save" before it changes your personal dictionary. This prevents mistakes from becoming part of your personal dictionary.

Most Android devices have GBoard installed.

In addition to day, week and agenda views that have improved aesthetics and usability features compared to the stock app, there are also two views that combine agenda and month views in interesting ways.

One approach shows a complete, color-coded month with agenda view beneath it and the second shows a complete month that pops up agenda view when clicked on a date.

The app has minimalistic, semi-transparent, good-looking and customizable homescreen widgets for agenda and month views. Attributes that can be customized include choosing between light and dark themes, 12 and 24 hour clock, if the widget header should be displayed as well as adjusting opacity level and date range among other options.

On-screen notifications have a shortcuts for map and ability to snooze them.

Google Calendar has an easy to overview interface, that doesn't overwhelm with options. It's based on Google's stock Calendar application with modifications to user interface and functionality.

To quickly add an event, each view has an option to either click a plus button somewhere on the screen or long-press a date to bring up a form. The long-press form will allow entering only the event name and assume that it's an all day event, while the plus button form allows setting the event duration as well.

Both forms have an edit button for a adding more detailed information. This way in addition to selecting an event name and date, there's an ability to add location, start/end times, guests, description, color-code as well as choosing if it's an all day event, how often it repeats, how many and what kind of reminders are needed and setting your availability and privacy settings.

The app will color-code different calendars in different colors as well as allow selecting a different color for each event.

It has a 14-day trial and costs $2.99 to use full-time.

Google calendar allows setting how many reminders are needed with each having the ability to set how long before the event the notification should remind and if it should be done via on-screen or e-mail notification.

The app leverages Google Maps when adding location for an event by offering suggestions as well as offers opening Maps to help get directions to an event via shortcut on a reminder notification.