The next Gboard beta is now available, and based on decompiling the APK, Google might be working on a new feature to its emoji panel that will benefit users. According to code found in version 10.1 of Gboard (“gcamara”), the emoji panel will automatically hide Android’s bottom navigation bar when you scroll.
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It’s a small touch, but one that gives the picker some extra breathing room and brings emoji in line with how GIFs and stickers already work.
What’s Changing in the Emoji Panel on Gboard Beta
Testers who have Gboard version 16.4.3.827411866 in the beta channel say that the emoji UI is picking up some of the same dynamic auto-hide behavior that’s been around for a while on GIF and sticker browsers.
When you’re flinging emoji up and down, the bottom system bar hides away and pops back out when you switch direction. In application, this might bring another slice of the grid into view, helping you to more clearly see the face or hand or symbol that was in your imagination.
The change doesn’t seem to be widely visible and has probably been protected by server-side flags; you might not see the same for S10 users on similar builds. Still, the message on consistency is clear: If you’re searching for a looping meme or an old-school thumbs-up, the browsing experience should be consistent and just a little roomier.
Design Tweaks Touch Buttons and Backgrounds
Along with the layout change, Google is experimenting with new color options for the emoji picker’s buttons and backgrounds in both light and dark mode. The palette seems to mitigate contrast compared with other recent Material You pushes that have highlighted bolder separation. This might be a step toward striking the right balance between legibility and the system’s dynamic color or just an aesthetic pass as the team dials in its visual hierarchy.
Since the changes are still very much in development, expect a lot of iteration here.
Google often A/B tests tonal adjustments before it lands on a look that jives across Pixel and third-party Android skins.
Why a Tiny Emoji Change in Gboard Really Matters
Emoji aren’t fringe anymore. Based on Adobe’s Emoji Trend Report, almost 92 percent of people use emoji to enable more expressive digital conversations. On mobile, a few pixels of additional vertical space can mean less scrolling, less time-to-emoji, and fewer mis-taps — especially if you’re working with large catalogs or browsing one-handed. And with Gboard on billions of devices worldwide, even small improvements add up in a big way.
Behaviorally, too: users fluidly switch between emoji, stickers, and GIFs in messaging apps. Aligning the touch among all three minimizes cognitive leakage. For power users who spend much of their time in the emoji grid’s “Smileys & People” and “Objects” sections, the auto-hide behavior can bring more options per screen up at a single time, so you can more easily visually scan for the right icon without having to search.
Apostrophe Behavior Improvements Are Still in Progress
And, separately, long-prophesied changes to the keyboard’s handling of the apostrophe—meant to facilitate smarter insertion and fewer errors while typing contractions—still creep forward. There are strings for a user-facing notice in place, so that would be your final message if you didn’t need to script anymore and wanted broader testing, but without seeming too rushed. These sorts of under-the-hood language tweaks typically need testing in region and locale before we can make them on by default.
Rollout Timing and What to Watch for in Gboard Updates
As is often the case with Gboard features, it appears that the emoji picker upgrade is dependent on both app version and server-side activation. Early reports from independent code hunters like AssembleDebug suggest the work is live in beta for some but not all at this time. And if past is prologue, it’ll likely start to slowly roll out in the next few weeks as a beta build and then migrate to stable if feedback and metrics look good.
For the emoji-dependent among us, you’ll want to keep an eye on subsequent Gboard betas, and look for minor differences in the picker UI. The update isn’t going to change what you know about the panel, just hopefully provide a more refined, consistent one that better takes advantage of your phone’s screen space — the kind of polish heavy texters ought to appreciate.