Originally billed as providing fast access to search, the Google keyboard has since grown to include many expressive features and a built-in clipboard. A Gboard for Android bug this evening sees the Google button disappear.
Pressing the ‘G’ button opens a search field with three suggested queries offered. Results are displayed as cards, and links can be easily pasted into the current text field.
The shortcut disappeared sometime in the last few hours. What’s left is a key — with sideways chevron — that users can tap to access other capabilities like Translate and the floating keyboard.
Under Settings > Search, the “Show ‘Search and more’ button” preference that shows the “faster access to Search” has been removed. Google looks to have disabled the functionality with a server-side change as there’s been no app update today.
This presumably was an accident as its affects both Gboard’s stable and beta channel (9.2). The button has also disappeared from older versions (9.0+) of the app.
Google will hopefully remedy this bug, but there is one short-term workaround. Open the suggestions strip and hit the last overflow button in the row. This reveals a grid of icons with “Search” appearing at the end. Hold down and drag to your desired position above. This adds the extra step of tapping the circular button in the top-left corner, but it’s better than nothing for those accustomed to speedy lookups.
Meanwhile, some users are seeing the “Google” logo appear on the space bar this evening. This branding seems excessive, and could be a side effect of the search button’s disappearance.
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About the Author
Abner Li
@technacity
Editor. Interested in the minutiae of Google and Alphabet. Tips/talk: [email protected]
