Conversation comes easy to some of us, but at the opposite end, there are people who struggle with small talk. Considering Gboard is one ofthe best keyboard apps on Android, Google is in the unique position of being able to improve the lives of introverts and awkward texters across the world. SinceI/O this year, the company has made it clear that generative AI will pervade every aspect of its business. Now, Gboard is picking up a feature that could give your conversation skills the boost they need.
Starting conversation requires situationally appropriate topics which aren’t too personal, and hopefully get the other person to respond. As many cold callers, job applicants, and dating app users may know, conversation starters are tricky to execute correctly. We already saw a handful ofGboard AI featureslast week, and the newest one in development is aptly called Conversation Starters, as spotted by AssembleDebug in theGappsMod Flags Telegram channel.
The feature is hidden behind several flags for Gboard, so it is unlikely you’ll be testing it right away. However, conversation starters show up when you tap theProofreadbutton in Gboard while the message composition field is empty. A horizontally scrolling carousel of topics to start the conversation should appear. You can pick any one of them, and Gboard AI should provide a question or a little info about the topic, so you can break the ice.
When this feature was tested, the list of 30+ available topics included generic subjects like travel, music, news, sports, movies, food, coffee, politics, education, handcraft, sci-fi, books, environment, weather, language, culture, history, love, relationships, makeup, shopping, creativity, poems, and camping. However, Gboard also suggested seemingly region-specific starters, including NBA, Biden, and Yosemite. Unsurprisingly, Google and AI were also suggested as conversation starter subjects.
We believe the list of conversation starters will improve as the feature evolves. It would also be cool if recent Search data was used to personalize conversation starters for you. More importantly, it is unlikely the feature will live under theProofreadbutton for long. Google could give it a new home, or directly surface starters in the Gboard suggestions bar when you start composing a message.
We eagerly anticipate the beta testing phase, because a feature like Conversation starters could help introverts overcome one of the biggest hurdles to forming new relationships. It can also make conversations with your friends more interesting, giving you the flexibility of starting with something unique each time. However, with thesheer number of Google AI writing assistsat work, we sometimes wonder if we are communicating with humans, or just their AI assistants. In all likelihood, this question will become harder to answer with time.
