Gboard is rolling out a new emoji picker that's optimized for tablets and foldables

Google’s keyboard app for Android, Gboard, is available on not only smartphones but also tablets, foldables, smartwatches, TVs, and even cars. Google had to do a lot of work to optimize Gboard for each form factor, but there’s always more that can be done to make the keyboard app look and perform even better. The company is now rolling out an update that further optimizes the Gboard for large-screen Android devices.

Earlier today, I spotted a new UI for picking emojis, stickers, GIFs, and emoticons in the Gboard app while using my Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, a book-style foldable, in its unfolded state. I turned on my OnePlus Open and checked if the new picker UI was also there when it was unfolded, but it wasn’t. However, after updating from Gboard version 14.5.05-beta to version 14.6.02-beta on my OnePlus Open, the new picker UI showed up.

For comparison, here’s the old Gboard UI for picking emojis, stickers, and GIFs on foldables:

This old picker UI is notably what you currently get on smartphones. In contrast, here’s the new Gboard UI for picking emojis, stickers, and GIFs that’s rolling out on foldables:

As you can see, the old picker UI places the search bar and categories at the top below the text field, whereas the new picker UI places them underneath the tab header on the left. The search bar is slightly larger and now says what you’re searching for, while the categories are now labeled instead of just being denoted by icons. Furthermore, the categories are now in a vertically scrolling carousel instead of a horizontally scrolling one.

On foldables, the toolbar where you switch between the emoji, sticker, GIF, and emoticon pickers is still placed at the very bottom above the navigation area. On tablets, though, this toolbar is moved to the very left side. The emoji kitchen section is also located in slightly different positions on foldables and tablets. On foldables, it’s located above the vertically scrolling carousel of emojis, just like on the old design. On tablets, however, it’s been moved to the left of the emoji carousel.

Overall, Gboard’s new UI for picking emojis, stickers, GIFs, and emoticons is better optimized for large-screen devices like Android tablets and book-style foldable phones. The new picker UI on foldables lets you use your left hand to switch between categories or tap the search bar and your right hand to pick a specific emoji, sticker, GIF, or emoticon. The new picker UI on tablets is similar but adds further optimizations to take advantage of the extra width of many tablet displays.

According to Gboard modder Radosław Błędowski, Google introduced a flag to enable this tablet-optimized picker UI two years ago. However, we haven’t seen any reports of this UI rolling out before, and in our testing, it appears to be new, at least on book-style foldables. If you see this new picker UI in the Gboard app on your tablet or foldable, let us know in the comments!