New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on December 16, 2021) follows:

Developed by Google, Gboard is one of the most widely virtual keyboard apps. Available on both iOS and Android devices, it features the ability to use Google Search and allows users to easily share GIFs and emotes.

Over the years, Google added several new functionalities to Gboard such as GIF search and suggestions, multilingual language support, and even a predictive typing engine to stay on top of the competition.

New theme

Unsurprisingly, the developer frequently updates the app to fix existing issues but sometimes these updates make the app unusable. That being said, recent reports from Gboard users suggest that the app is crashing whenever they use the emoji button.

Many say that even the GIF and sticker search feature isn’t working either. Users say that Gboard started crashes after the recent iOS 15.2 update. Moreover, the crashes do not seem to be limited to any particular app.

One thing to note here is that Gboard was last updated in December of 2020 for iOS devices, which is absurd coming from a software company like Google. You can see how Gboard crashes when searching for GIFs in the video below.

View post on imgur.com

Is Gboard emoji busted on 15.2?
Upgraded today… gboard in any app… press emoji… flashes but back to keyboard… press again… switches to ios keyboard. Same after reboot and no pending updates. Just me?
(Source)

Gboard for iOS hasn’t been updated in a year, so who knows when/if it’ll be fixed. I’ve rebooted and reinstalled… nothing works. As for reporting to Google, I left a review describing the issue in the App Store… not sure if that’s helpful or not. There has to be someone on the GBoard team who uses it on their iPhone and has noticed this issue.
(Source)

While the Gboard crashes are not consistent, they are really frustrating and bother those affected since a majority of users use emojis every day.

Another thing to notice is that pressing the sticker buttons does open the page, but if you try to search for any sticker or GIF, the app crashes back to the home screen.

We hope Google acknowledges the Gboard issue where users are unable to use the emoji button and GIF and stick search and update the app so users can enjoy it again.

Rest assured, we will be keeping a keen eye on the issue and update this article when the issue is fixed so make sure you stay tuned.

Update 1 (December 17)

09:34 am (IST): A product expert on the Google community forum acknowledged this issue and said that it is referred to Google team for further investigation.

Update 2 (January 01)

04:35 pm (IST): While the issue is yet to be fixed officially, some of those affected users have provided temporary workarounds to try and here are those.

Workaround 1:

There is a workaround to fix the emoji button crash in iOS.

– Go to Settings -> Keyboard -> Keyboards -> Gboard -> Turn off Allow full access

This will make fix the emoticons button crash but you won’t be able to access GIFs. (Source)

Workaround 2:

Just updated to 15.2 and have the same problem.. this is so shit.
My solution:

I disabled the “allow full access” in the settings and downloaded the GIF keyboard app. So now I can still send gifs and using Gboard without crashing 🙂 (Source)

Update 3 (January 24)

06:36 pm (IST): Users are still reporting Gboard crashing issue even after the latest iOS 15.2.1 update. This means that the issue is still not resolved.

Update 4 (January 27)

05:35 pm (IST): Gboard crashing issue still persists for iPhone users even after the latest iOS 15.3 update, as reports (1, 2) continue to pour in. That means users will need to wait for little longer to get it fixed.

Update 5 (February 08)

05:11 pm (IST): The latest version of Gboard app on iOS brings fix for GIF/Emoji crashing issue. And some users also confirmed that this issue is now finally fixed.

Note: We have more such stories in our dedicated Apps Section so be sure to follow them as well.

PiunikaWeb started as purely an investigative tech journalism website with main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.

Anurag Chawake
1373 Posts

My fascination with technology and computers goes back to the days of Windows XP. Since then, I have been tinkering with OS, mobile phones, and other things. When I am not working on anything, you will find me enjoying video games on some Discord server.

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