Gboard rolls out handwriting feature on Pixel and Samsung tablets

The Gboard pen handwriting support we first enabled in August is now rolling out to Android tablets that provide input.

In Gboard’s settings, there’s a new “Write in text fields” menu that explains how “your handwriting will be converted into text that you can edit or delete.” (The legacy handwriting keyboard — shown in the cover image above — is available when you add a language.) You can play the tutorial by tapping “Try it” and available editing actions include:

• wipe up: “Use your pen to erase a letter, word, or phrase to delete it.”
• He chooses: “Draw a circle around a letter, world, or phrase to select it.”
• Insert: “Use your pen to draw a caret or arrow to which you want to add new text.”
• joins: “Draw “|” [vertical line] Between text to insert a space or combine text before and after the space
• New line: “Drag down, then left with your pen to move the text to a new line”

when you He writesThere’s a floating Keyboard Toolbar with delete, insert, and emoji (floating window), and a hamburger key that indicates your current language (if more than one is set). This provides shortcuts to:

• Settings
• Try displaying handwriting
• Show on-screen keyboard: Small floating keyboard
• Show clipboard
• Show translation
• Language selector

You can move this pill-shaped panel anywhere on the screen but it defaults to setting its perimeter with both vertical and horizontal layouts displayed. When docked down, a flat bar appears. Other settings let you adjust handwriting speed and line width.

Handwriting with a stylus has been rolling out to Gboard in recent days (h/t Mishal Rahman). I experienced this with the latest beta (13.7) on both the Pixel and Samsung tablets — the Tab S8 — running Android 14.

I wrote part of this article using Gboard’s new handwriting feature. I’m not a fan of the delete gesture Google has chosen to cross out text when editing is more common. For now, typing text this way is another way to select something, which I think is better than the default circle.

The basic recognition feature works well and is very easy. As you type the next word, Gboard will convert the previous word, and you can move to a new line of text when you reach the end of the screen.