Google's new iPhone keyboard puts search, emoji and GIFs front and center

It must be iPhone keyboard season or something because it seems like everybody but Apple is hellbent on making a better keyboard.

Microsoft's Word Flow keyboard released last month makes one-handed texting easier, Giphy Keys is arguably the best GIF keyboard and now Google's got its own Gboard keyboard.

Gboard isn't simply Google Keyboard ported over to iOS. It's chock full of Google features, like built-in Google search functionality.

Tapping the Google icon in Gboard opens up a Google search bar. From there, you can search for anything and instantly share them within an app like Messager or WhatsApp without needing to leave the app.

The keyboard also makes it easier to search for GIFS and emojis. Compared to the iPhone's default keyboard, where you have to scroll through pages and pages to find the right emoji under a category, you can simply type the emoji you want with Gboard.

Other messaging apps like Line have had better stickers and emoji support for ages, but this is a good step forward.

Gboard also supports Swype-like texting so you can slide your finger from letter to letter to string together words quicker.

We've been trying out Gboard and so far it seems to be a solid keyboard replacement for the default iOS keyboard. You can download it from the App Store here and give it a try for yourself.

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