# Gboard 59 Hacker News commenters recommended Gboard and 43 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months. **Verdict:** People recommend it for multilingual typing, adaptive swipe typing and prediction that beats default keyboards. Critics most often cite weak suggestions for smaller languages. ## Why people recommend it - Handles several languages at once (7 comments): "I rely on Gboard every day for the simple reason that it auto-detects several (more than two) languages" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47004163)) "It figures out what language I'm typing from the first couple of words and prioritises those." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48662594)) "With gboard I can swipe type al 3 languages I speak without having to constantly switch" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48654248)) - Better than the default iPhone keyboard (5 comments): "GBoard which is way better but the experience is not the same as with a default keyboard" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47008478)) "When I had iPhone for work, the first thing I did was install gboard." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47004644)) "it's crazy how bad the Apple iOS keyboard is by comparison" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46234298)) - Adaptive swipe typing (3 comments): "swipe typing on Gboard feels much better than FUTO's because I think it adapts to my typing style" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48654821)) "With gboard I can swipe type al 3 languages I speak without having to constantly switch" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48654248)) "I can touch-type with flow typing in GBoard at this point." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47117255)) - Accurate predictions and corrections (4 comments): "the amount of time GBoard thinks it needs to recommend @gmail.com, it's obnoxious... But the correction offers are still okay for me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47006963)) "Nothing else implements a prediction model over a number of words as far as I can tell." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47120235)) "Gboard is somehow still the best, the native android keyboard is hardly usable." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48291245)) ## What people warn about - Weak suggestions for some languages (5 comments): "Works reasonably well. Accuracy is a bit lower for words that are collisions across languages" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48655768)) "it didn't provide any word suggestions for ant language other than English" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48565688)) "it doesn't know basic declensions in Czech nor Polish and autocorrects them to something nonsensical" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46234207)) - Autocorrect changes words wrongly (4 comments): "the amount of time GBoard thinks it needs to recommend @gmail.com, it's obnoxious... But the correction offers are still okay for me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47006963)) "Autocorrect and spellcheck, not just on Android but other Google products, will change correct danish to incorrect danish." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46234222)) "Suggests words that make no sense, preferring rare words to much more widely used and obvious matching picks." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46235946)) - Keeps a record of typing (2 comments): "avoiding a Google product that keep a trail of everything you type seems like a strong argument" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47004734)) "it's not safe to install things like Gboard even with the network permission disabled" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49594795)) - Rarely updated, UI glitches (2 comments): "Gboard hasn't been updated in 4 years and as a result the UI doesn't always display properly." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47010168)) "It's pretty old now and hasn't been updated in a long time, but it still works." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48657849)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [FUTO Keyboard](https://hackerapproved.com/p/futo-keyboard.md): 51 recommend - [FUTO Swipe](https://hackerapproved.com/p/futo-swipe.md): 40 recommend - [Microsoft SwiftKey](https://hackerapproved.com/p/swiftkey.md): 21 recommend - [Keybee keyboard](https://hackerapproved.com/p/keybee.md): 8 recommend - [Thumb-Key](https://hackerapproved.com/p/thumb-key.md): 6 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Gboard", https://hackerapproved.com/p/gboard/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).