Rumor: official Google Pixel Tablet stylus and keyboard may be coming

Two lines from a Google app code point in the direction of two more accessories arriving for the Pixel Tablet: a stylus and a keyboard. The $499/$599 tablet comes in a bundle with a Charging Speaker Dock.

The charging dock doubles as a speaker (you could already tell that by the name), but that’s about it when it comes to hardware accessories with the Pixel Tablet. Neither a stylus, nor a keyboard come out of the box of your spanking new 11-inch device. You can’t buy ones made by Google, for now. That might change, so draw your wallets and be ready.

The latest version of the Retail Demo (official Google-made app used in retail stores: it locks the screen and plays a demo of a given device’s specs and functionalities) contains two interesting strings. They are named quite laconically: ‘Keyboard for Pixel Tablet’ and ‘Pen for Pixel Tablet’ (as seen by androidauthority).

As of now, the accessories are only rumored. There are no photos or visual mockups for either of the two, but they might differ slightly and offer better compatibility than third-party keyboard and stylus options for the Pixel Tablet.

Android 14 will distinguish between different stylus buttons

For over two weeks now we’ve known that changes to both stylus and keyboard support are coming in Android 14. Android expert Mishaal Rahman explains his findings in a series of tweets – the next version of the mobile OS will be able to make a distinction between different stylus buttons like a primary button (closest to the tip), a secondary, a tertiary, and a tail button. Android 14 will not turn a blind eye to physical keyboards, either. It will reportedly enable more keyboard shortcuts for tablets.