Has your typing experience on Gboard degraded? Google Pixel users claim increase in errors and typos

Google Pixel users are experiencing a collective frustration that many thought was just them getting worse at typing. A Reddit thread in the r/GooglePixel community has exploded with hundreds of comments from users reporting dramatically increased typing errors and accuracy issues with Gboard.

The complaints span across multiple Pixel generations, from the Pixel 4XL to the latest Pixel 9 Pro XL. Users describe having to retype messages multiple times, accidentally hitting adjacent keys more frequently, and dealing with autocorrect that seems broken.

“I don’t know what happened, but within the past couple of updates, the keyboard has absolutely become unusable,” wrote one frustrated user who started the discussion. “I used to love this phone and I can barely type on it without making a million mistakes.”

Most users report the degradation started sometime in the last few months. What’s particularly striking is how many people initially blamed themselves for the problems. Here are some comments from that thread:

I was convinced that I was just suddenly getting worse at typing on my phone. Glad to see all these comments saying otherwise.

I legitimately thought my smartphone hand-eye coordination was deteriorating and I was getting early onset boomer.

I was getting concerned I was having some kind of episode the other night as the message I typed was complete gibberish!

The issues affect both traditional tap typing and swipe gestures. Many describe having to “slam” each key with their finger to prevent the keyboard from registering touches on adjacent keys. Others mention swipe typing producing completely unrelated words despite careful finger movements.

Some users found temporary relief by switching to alternative keyboards like SwiftKey. However, several people noted that even third-party keyboards eventually developed similar issues, suggesting the problem might be deeper than just Gboard itself.

The complaints extend beyond typing accuracy. Users report the keyboard sometimes failing to appear, freezing the touchscreen, or randomly inserting emojis into messages. The autocorrect function appears particularly problematic, with many saying it now changes correctly spelled words into incorrect ones.

I honestly can’t say if I’ve experienced the same issues. I switch between an iPhone 16 and Pixel 8 daily, and in my experience the typing experience is always better on the Pixel 8 using Gboard. Maybe my opinion is skewed by the comparison, but the widespread nature of these complaints suggests something has genuinely changed.

Feel free to share your thoughts about this in the comments section below. You can also join the discussion on Reddit by heading here.