Gboard is Google's new app to smuggle search into iPhones

One of Google's looming existential fears is that Apple will cut Google search out — either through nixing its lucrative deal as the default provider on its iPhone mobile browser or some other routes.

Here is Google's latest move to undercut that: Gboard, an app for Apple's iOS devices that slips into other apps and summons Google search with the touch of a button. The app also permits popular millennial pastimes like searching for GIFs and emojis.

If adopted, the app gives Google access to loads more search data, its lifeblood, and gives iPhone users a pipeline to Google's information (on "restaurant info, flight times, news articles," Google offers) — not information from competitors like Yelp or Apple.

The Verge, our sister site, told you in March that a Google iOS app was coming.