Filipinos can now type in Bicol on Google's Gboard
“With today’s
update, we’ve added support for Bicol and over twenty other new language
varieties, including several Indian languages, Chinese, Korean and African
languages like Fulani. Gboard on Android now supports 300 language varieties,
covering over 70% of the world’s population. This includes Filipino, Hiligaynon,
Kapampangan, and Ilokano,” says Daan van Esch, Gboard Technical Program
Manager, in a blogpost.
He adds, “while
we’re excited to bring Gboard to more people around the world with today’s
update, we still have work to do to bring even more languages, unique scripts,
native layouts and transliterated layouts to the keyboard.”
Typing made easier with Gboard––powered by machine
learning
Gboard is Google’s
smart keyboard with Google Search and Google Translate built in. Just tap the
“G” button to search and share information quickly, and if you’d like to
translate text you can also do that directly in your keyboard.
Predicting the next
word you might want to type, suggesting auto corrections and other features in
Gboard are powered by machine learning. We use language samples from the web
and work closely with native speakers in the Philippines to collect data to
train our machine learning models. These models then analyze the data to find
common patterns in phrases and sentences, powering Gboard's next-word
prediction and auto-correction. So when you type in Bicol you’d see
suggestions like baga–that’s made possible with machine learning.
To make typing
easier and faster on a small screen, Gboard also comes with glide typing and
suggestions––you can slide your finger from letter to letter to type, and we’ll
show you suggested words while you’re writing.
Say it with an image...or gif, or emoji
There are moments
when an image (or gif!) says more than a thousand words. With Gboard, you can also search and share emoji and GIFs. Instead of
scrolling and scrolling to find the emoji of a monkey, just
search “monkey” to find that emoji you want. Or, find a GIF for the perfect
reaction. GIF sharing works today in Google Messenger, Allo and Hangouts, as
well as many third party apps.
So
the next time you’re texting a friend your favorite cat video or news of the
day, you don’t have to leave you app. Just search and
send — right from your keyboard.
To get these
updates to your Gboard for Android, head to the Google Play Store and make sure
you’re running the latest version of the app. Happy typing!