Gboard now supports image pasting in suggestion strip on Google Chrome & probably other Chromium browsers

The keyboard is one of the primary input methods we use to interact with our phones. Granted, it’s only natural that it should always be in proper shape.

The Google Keyboard, or simply Gboard, happens to be one of the most popular apps in this line of business. It comes pre-installed on some Android phones and is also available via the Play Store.

What makes Gboard one of the best is the features it offers alongside the usual ‘simplicity’ mantra. One such feature is the suggestion strip.

Here, you’ll find suggestions to the possible words that you could use from your previous typed words. With continued use, Gboard gets to know you better and eventually starts making much better suggestions.

But lately, it appears as though Google has another use for the suggestion strip in Gboard. According to reports on Reddit, the suggestion strip in Gboard now supports image pasting.

Did you know that (at least the Samsung Keyboard & Google Keyboard) now support copy&paste of images without any additional dedicaded app? I tried it with the Gboard and it worked fine, I also updated my basic Samsung keyboard from the galaxy store and it also got the same feature.

You just need to long press on an image in the browser and select “copy”. Then you go to the messenger app of your choice, click on the text input field as usual. Then above the keyboard there should be a thumbnail of the image you just copied. Click on it and you can post the image.

Also works with the same way with screenshots. It works with Telegram, whatsapp, discord and the facebook messenger. Doesn’t seem to work with the skype app yet.

Sometime last, Gboard gained support for image pasting in the clipboard, but this feature required users to perform a few gymnastics in order to enable it.

Today, though, you don’t need to take the flags’ route to enable this function. In fact, Google has now made image pasting possible in the Gboard suggestion strip and not the clipboard like before.

This means that when you long-press on an image, tap on the “Copy image” option, and open Telegram, for instance, tapping the text input area brings up the keyboard with a thumbnail of the copied image in the suggestion strip.

This way, all you need is to tap on the thumbnail to paste the copied image where you want it, making the entire process much easier and shorter than before.

Apparently, it’s possible the copy and paste addition in Gboard could have stemmed from a Chrome update, especially since we’ve been unable to replicate this behavior in Microsoft Edge and Firefox on Android.

We were also unable to get the same results when using Samsung Keyboard, something some Redditors disagree with, claiming that they can use the image copy & paste function in Samsung Keyboard as well as Vivaldi browser.

Works in vivaldi too, so maybe this feature is inbuilt in chromium
Source

Works in Samsung browser, don’t think it’s anything to do with the keyboard, seems more like a system/browser feature
Source

One thing to note is that unlike pasting text which is only sent after hitting the Send button, pasting an image via the suggestion strip immediately sends it to the intended recipient.

It’s also worth noting that some users already have this function while others don’t, so it may be a gradual, server-side rollout, but do let us know if you have it in the comments section below.

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