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Remove the G-button from the Android keyboard

If you are using the official Google Keyboard application on Android, now called Gboard, then you may have noticed that it features a new G-button at the top of the keyboard.

You can tap on it to run web searches directly in the keyboard interface, regardless of application you are in. For instance, if you are in WhatsApp, you could runi a search for "funny image", and paste a link to one of the results.

While this can be useful, it can also be awfully distracting especially since it is rather easy to tap on the G-button accidentally to bring up the search interface.

Remove the G-button from the Android keyboard

gboard g-icon keyboard android

As you can see on the screenshot above, a tap on the G-icon opens the search interface. Google displays suggestions and an option to type custom search queries. Results are returned in the interface, with news and weather searches always only a tap away.

If you don't need the icon, because you don't need the functionality that it provides you with, or because it gets in your way, you may want to remove it from the keyboard.

While you can get rid of the G-button, there does not seem to be a way currently to remove the full line the G-icon is placed in.

Here is how you remove the button:

  1. While in the chat interface, tap on the G-button and then on the preferences icon that is displayed next to other icons and the search interface.
  2. Select Search on the Gboard keyboard settings page that opens.
  3. There you find the option to hide the "G" button, and an option to disable predictive search.

gboard remove g-button

If you toggle the Show "G" button switch, the button itself is removed. The main issue however is that the line that it was placed on is still there. Basically, what happens is that the button is replaced by an arrow icon.

A tap on the icon does not trigger the search interface directly, but it displays options to run searches and to open the settings among other things.

There does not seem to be an option right now to remove that line completely which means that you are left with dead weight in the keyboard layout that you have no use for and can't remove.

Closing Words

Many Android users may find the new Gboard "G" Button useful. It enables them to run searches without having to switch to another app to do so. That's the use case that Google is pushing with the update.

Those that don't require it on the other hand have no option to remove it completely from the keyboard. Well, technically, you could install another keyboard app and start using it.

Now You: What's your take on the Gboard app update?

 

This article was first seen on ComTek's "TekBits" Technology News

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