Gboard May Soon Offer Smarter Voice Typing And Edi...

Google is developing a new AI-powered voice typing and editing feature for Gboard, its virtual keyboard app, which could significantly enhance how users interact with text—without needing to touch their phones. This upcoming feature appears to be part of Google’s broader push to integrate generative AI and context-aware tools into its apps, especially ahead of the release of the Pixel 10 series.

Currently, Gboard supports basic voice commands for editing text, such as “delete” or “edit” followed by the desired portion of text. However, according to a recent APK teardown of Gboard version 15.6.2 beta, a new feature called “SmartEdit” is in the works. SmartEdit is expected to allow users to perform more complex, nuanced voice edits using AI, possibly powered by Google’s Gemini Nano models.

This new functionality would enable more than just simple corrections. Google appears to be preparing support for detailed edits, where the AI can understand natural language commands to make more precise adjustments. For instance, users could ask Gboard to insert a word in the middle of a sentence, change the tone of a message, or perform context-aware corrections without needing to manually highlight or retype text.

SmartEdit may also support actions beyond editing, such as sending messages, as part of its expanded command recognition. While Gboard’s current capabilities already offer some voice control, this upgrade would reflect a shift toward a more intelligent, conversational interaction between user and device.

At this stage, the feature is not yet available for public use, and although the code includes example prompts and editing scenarios, testers have been unable to activate SmartEdit fully. As such, it’s still unclear how flexible or customizable these voice commands will be in practice.

Because this tool relies on on-device AI processing, its effectiveness will likely depend on the device’s hardware capabilities. More advanced functions may be limited to newer phones or specific models, such as the upcoming Pixel devices.

Filed in Cellphones. Read more about AI (Artificial Intelligence), Gboard and Google.