Android’s Gboard always suggests replies in chat apps that fit the context of what my contacts write.
If my previous message had been related, I would assume it predicted what my contact would say in response and make a suggestion based on that. But even if the contact changes the topic, the suggestions are appropriate.
I don’t expect that the apps all share the conversation with Gboard. So how are the predictions made.
It seems unlikely that it would take screenshots and base predictions on that. But otherwise I don’t know how it is possible.
This comes from Android Smart Reply, not GBoard: https://developers.google.com/ml-kit/language/smart-reply
It’s on-device local processing using AI and it integrates with notifications (not the keyboard). GBoard has no access to your messages
Thank you! This must be it.
I don’t have message content in my notifications, so I don’t think it can read any data from there. Maybe Signal just supplies it to this service directly?
Even if message content is hidden from the user, Smart Reply can access it
GBoard has no access to your messages
As far as we know. Gboard comes from Google and I don’t trust them even if they put it down on paper
Feel free to decompile them - it’s all there in the APK, you don’t have to live in doubt.
We are talking about Google, are you sure it doesn’t do whatever it wants? You know, settings can apply for all apps except Google ones (just my 2 cents) why not use something else? Foss
I haven’t found something that has good support for swiping words. Anysoft Keyboard gets too many words wrong.
If I thought Google was actually collecting what I type, I would put up with typing manually on another keyboard. But that kind of data collection without consent is illegal in the EU. I’d put the risk of Google breaking the law here at less than 10%, which is tolerable.
I think giving up swipe to text is a small thing to make your life more private
I’ve also tried Microsoft Swiftkey, and it’s still not as good. Gboard is, unfortunately, the best option for useability, though it is worse than it used to be.
Can you take a screenshot or provide examples? I’ve never seen Gboard provide more than single-word suggestions, and nothing particularly contextual.
Seems I was confused about it being Gboard. It’s one of those suggestion lines that pop up over the keyboard, but apparently it’s a separate service.
Gboard wouldn’t need to take screenshots. It can see what you’re typing as you’re typing it. As far as what your contacts are saying, if they’re using Gboard, it’s the same for them. And even if Google doesn’t admit it, we all know they’re correlating every single data point about people they can get, which includes who talks to who. I wouldn’t be surprised if they know you’re talking to a particular person and tailors your suggestions to fit the conversation. This is an even stronger possibility if you’re using one of Google’s messaging apps.