The Gboard application for Google Pixel 5 and Pixel 4 models is getting a new update that brings "enhanced voice typing" experience. According to 9to5Google, the rollout of the update appears to be in a staggered manner, and more users are expected to receive the feature in the coming days. The report adds that the enhanced voice typing appears to be under development as some features do not fully work. In case the enhanced voice typing feature is available, Pixel 5 and Pixel 4 (including Pixel 4a) users will see a "NEW" banner after opening Gboard and tapping the microphone icon. The new Gboard will allow users to enable improved voice typing with voice commands provided by Google Assistant, the report states.
The enhanced Gboard is touted to "save time" instead of typing. Users with the enhanced voice typing feature available on Pixel 5 and Pixel 4/4a' Gboard, can not only dictate text messages but also give voice commands like clear to delete, send to send the typed message and so on. Further, there are multiple options within the Gboard that users can select by heading to its Settings. These options are available to improve the overall user experience. For instance, There's a new auto punctuation option to "automatically add punctuation while dictating." With the previous Gboard versions, users had to manually say 'period,' 'comma,' or 'question/exclamation mark,' to get correct punctuation on the text message. 9to5Google adds that the feature works quite well in Gboard. Additionally, this new option coincides with last year's "faster voice typing," that downloads an offline mode on the device and works in real-time.
At the moment, the enhanced voice typing powered by Google Assistant and auto punctuations is only limited to Google Pixel 5 and Pixel 4 models that have the latest Gboard beta (version 10.0+) installed. The global availability details of the enhanced voice typing feature remain unclear.