• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, May 12, 2016

Catering to iPhone users, Google just debuted a new keyboard for easier searching and sending of GIFs, emojis, and other matter.

Dubbed Gboard, the new offering works in any app -- from messaging to email to YouTube -- so you can use it anywhere on their phones.

The new iPhone-specific keyboard allows users to search for more than just Google search results. For example, searching for “dancer” will retrieve the popular emoji of a dancing lady.

The offering comes amid a broad shift in search to mobile devices, along with slowing smartphone sales, which is clearly compelling Google to get more creative about how it distributes its various services.

Among tech giants, mobile keyboards have become a big focus of investment.

Earlier this year, for instance, Microsoft dropped $250 million on keyboard app maker SwiftKey. The deal was likely a result of SwiftKey’s artificial-intelligence assets. They supported the recent launch of an Android keyboard that uses a neural network in place of standard algorithms to predict one’s word selection.

Similarly, Apple recently bought Perception -- a startup that specializes in technology for companies that want to run advanced artificial intelligence systems on smartphones.