No one asked for this: Google is testing round keys in Gboard

My understanding is that modern touchscreen keyboard use very aggressive predictive text so that the actual "shape" of the keys in terms of where you touch the screen isn't even well defined. This certainly feels like the case in contexts where it's turned off, like Google Search. Is this more of an aesthetic thing?

Are there any decent but basic swipe keyboards? Swiftkey was miles better than Gboard, but Microsoft acquired it and made it crap. It's got AI in it now apparently...

Bring back slide out keyboards - I deeply miss my Droid that had this. so much nicer to type on.

The way this was tested too was weird. I had the round keys for one interaction and then they went away. I can't find an option to even turn them on if I wanted to.

I guess one way to test stuff is good or not is to see how many people complain about it so open betas seem to have a good audience.

Ah the engineer in charge of the keyboard button shape finally gets to earn his RSUs

I just want a damn Ctrl key......

It’s not a big deal.

/edit

…as big as you’re making it seem