It’s not common to cover the same subject in a technological media for a year, but it allows to see the evolution of the company’s decisions on certain specific subjects. In this case, on folding and the importance given to it by brands like Google.
Earlier this year, we complained that the Gboard app, Google’s keyboard for Android, was nothing short of nonsense on folding book-type mobiles because it didn’t scale to the size of the screen when we opened it. Samsung knew that was key and adapted its keyboard, but of course it’s not something available on other models and, if we wanted to use Gboard, we’d have a worse experience.
In May this year, Google confirmed that it was working on an update to Gboard that would improve usability in this type of folding. We finally got to test it.
Gboard already has a split design
normal design and split design
Folding book-type screens, like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 in which we tested the new version of the keyboard, are much wider than conventional screens.
That is why it was necessary to divide the keyboard into two zones. As you can see, Gboard now allows this in a new setting in its configuration menu.
Además, si giramos el móvil y lo ponemos en horizontal, la división se nota aún más porque hay más espacio central, algo lógico porque lo que hace el teclado es moverse a los laterales, no aumentar el tamaño de las teclas.
Por último, si nos es conveniente en algún caso, podemos poner el teclado flotante para escribir a una mano, aunque con el tamaño de estos dispositivos quizás no sea lo más adecuado.
Esperemos que Google siga actualizando sus aplicaciones para sacarle partido a las pantallas de grandes dimensiones ahora que viene la Pixel Tablet y, con suerte, el Pixel Fold.
