If I had to guess the most used app on your smartphone, I think it would be the keyboard. There’s no denying that the keyboard makes up a large part of your daily smartphone use. However, choosing a keyboard can be a difficult task when you have multiple options. We’ve done a few mobile keyboard comparisons in the past, but this one focuses on Gboard and Grammarly.
Gboard is largely known as Google’s official keyboard app. This is why it is popular among many Android smartphone users. The keyboard app, Google’s native keyboard app, often comes pre-installed with many out-of-the-box Android devices. Grammarly, on the other hand, is famous for its grammar checking features. While Grammarly is a keyboard, its app also functions as a typing assistant, checking for grammar mistakes (and suggesting corrections) as you type.
Which is the better keyboard app though? Let’s find out.
Availability and Compatibility
Both Grammarly and Gboard can be downloaded, installed and used on Android and iOS devices. If you are using one of these operating systems, go to your device’s app store and install it. In terms of compatibility, the Grammarly app currently supports Android phones and tablets running Android 5.0 Lollipop or newer. Gboard is compatible with almost all Android OS versions and devices.
Grammarly keyboard is compatible with a wide range of iOS devices (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) running iOS 11.2 or later. Gboard requires a minimum of iOS 10.0 or later and supports an even wider range of iPhone, iPad generations, and iPod Touches.
Language Support: Gboard surpasses Grammarly
English is the only language supported with a Grammarly keyboard – at least for now. The English language variants supported on Grammarly include American English, British English, Canadian English, and Australian English. So if you communicate frequently in these languages and want to do it correctly without grammatical errors, Grammarly is for you.
Gboard, on the other hand, is the keyboard app that supports the most languages. When Google launched the keyboard in 2016, it only supported over a hundred languages. Currently, Gboard has support for 500 languages. Interestingly, languages can be easily changed in the Languages section of the Gboard settings menu.
Grammarly lacks Gboard’s In-App translation feature. You don’t need a special translation app or a web browser to learn the meanings of words in strange languages. While using the keyboard, tap the three-dot menu button, tap Translate, select the languages you want to translate, and let the Gboard app do the rest.
keyboard layout
Keyboard layout refers to the arrangement style or placement of keys on your keyboard. While QWERTY is the standard and most used layout, there are other keyboard layouts that are predominantly used in different parts of the world. Support for multiple layouts is one of the best features of Google Keyboard (Gboard).
Gboard lets you type in six (6) different layouts for each keyboard language — QWERTY, QWERTZ, AZERTY, Dvorak, Colemak and PC. So you can choose one of them and get comfortable with Gboard.
Grammarly only supports the QWERTY keyboard layout.
Clipboard Manager
If you are looking for the best keyboard app for your mobile device, one of the features you want to make sure the keyboard has is Clipboard Manager. There are tons of keyboard apps out there, but only a handful come with built-in clipboard managers.
Gboard has a dedicated Clipboard Manager that allows you to easily recover copied text on your device. Gboard saves copied texts in the clipboard manager for 60 minutes (1 hour) and then automatically deletes them. Interestingly, you can pin copied texts to keep them longer. We have a detailed guide on how you can effectively use the Gboard clipboard manager to recover copied texts. You should check.
A dedicated clipboard manager is another feature missing from the Grammarly keyboard app. So yes, Gboard has won again.
Multimedia Support — Emojis, GIFs and Stickers
Both keyboard apps support the use of emoji, but Gboard has a larger collection of emojis. Even better, Gboard has a dedicated emoji search box that lets you find emojis easily. Grammarly lacks an emoji search box that lets you manually scroll through many emojis to find what you need.
Unlike Grammarly, Gboard supports the use of GIFs and stickers. The GIF and Stickers sections also have a dedicated search button that can be used to search for GIFs and Stickers online (on Google).
Error (typo) Correction
Grammarly definitely wins in this department. As mentioned earlier, Grammarly’s greatest strength is in eliminating grammatical errors and typos while writing. Grammarly warns you when you misspell a word, and the keyboard also shows a lot of changes in your sentences, phrases, tenses, verb usage, etc. shows errors.
There’s something you should know. Grammarly’s spell checking and sentence editing functions are internet dependent. This means that if your smartphone is not connected to the internet, Grammarly is as good as useless. You can type, but the keyboard does not offer any grammar corrections.
If Grammarly detects an error in your text, the Grammarly icon displays the number of errors detected as a notification. Tap the icon to see more details about the bug and suggested fix(s).
I’ve been using Grammarly for years and I can say that the grammar and spelling checker is super efficient.
Appearance and Convenience
Grammarly does a great job of letting users change the keyboard look to suit their preferences, but Gboard does an even better job. For example, Grammarly only supports two themes: Light and Dark. Compared to Gboard, this is somewhat limiting.
Gboard offers 18 different colors/themes to choose from. Alternatively, you can spice up the look of the keyboard by choosing the built-in Landscape images as background images. You can also tap the ‘+’ button at the top of the Themes section to choose an image from your gallery as the keyboard background.
Gboard colors can also be customized using the default Light gradient or Dark gradient colors in the Theme section.
Regarding convenience, Gboard allows users to change the keyboard height to seven different sizes (Extra short, Short, Medium-short, Normal, Medium-long, Tall and Extra Tall). Grammarly only supports three adjustable keyboard heights (Short, Normal, and Tall).
Another feature of the Gboard keyboard that I really like (but not on Grammarly) is the ‘One-handed mode’, which allows users to type more easily while holding and using their device with one hand. This mod resizes the Gboard app to make the keyboard more optimized for one-hand use.
Floating mode is another Gboard feature that you will definitely want to try.
Internal Search Engine
Gboard comes with a dedicated web search tool that lets you search for terms and queries on the keyboard. Tap on the Google icon and enter your query in the search box provided. Search results are displayed on separate cards that can be viewed on the keyboard or opened in external applications.
War of Convenience
Overall, Gboard has more and better (basic and advanced) features than Grammarly. From in-app translation to larger emoji collections, various themes, floating fashion, built-in search engine and many other features. What Google lacks is Grammarly’s advanced spell-checking and word-correction functions – the only reason you’d want to choose it over Gboard. You can install both on your device and switch between both apps depending on the features you need to use.
Next: Are you looking for a new keyboard app for mobile? Check out an in-depth comparison of TouchPal and Gboard, two popular keyboard apps with both features and fans.
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