After beta testing, Gboard is undoing key aspects of the Emoji and GIF picker update that Android users did not particularly like.
At the start of June, Google introduced a new carousel consisting of rectangular cards to switch between Emoji, Custom Stickers (for phones with Pixel Studio), GIFs, Stickers, and Emoticons. Those with the Pixel 9 saw that last time go offscreen with this new design, thus requiring a scroll/swipe. All users saw the loss of the delete key in favor of a FAB (floating action button) that covered some items.
That navigation redesign is now gone and Gboard has gone back to what’s essentially the original look, but with items placed in (narrower) cards. As such, everything fits in one screen again.
L-R: Original, initial redesign, updated design
The delete key returns. On phones with just four items, this interface is left-aligned and unfortunately not centered like before.
Google kept the other changes to the headings for each section that allows for more items in that top row, while the combined expressive page is still gone.
Gboard 15.5 with this picker update is now rolling out to the stable channel.
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