Pixel users can't reply to emails in Gmail right now, and nobody knows why

by · Android Police

Gmail’s AI-powered features make replying to emails easier than ever, but none of that matters if you can’t reply in the first place. A strange bug affecting some Pixel users is preventing them from responding to emails in the Gmail app.

Several Pixel users on Reddit report that they can't get the keyboard to appear in the Gmail app when trying to reply to an email. They can see the AI-suggested autocomplete options and the 'Help me write' suggestions at the bottom. However, tapping on the cursor does not bring up the keyboard.

The issue appears to be limited to Pixel phones, and it seems to have surfaced suddenly in the last 24 hours without any obvious trigger. There were no reports of Gmail not working normally before that. I couldn’t reproduce it on my Galaxy S23 Ultra or Vivo X300 Ultra, but on my Pixel 8 Pro running the stable Android 17 update, Gboard refuses to appear when I try to reply to an email in Gmail.

Try these workarounds until Google fixes Gmail

If you are facing the same issue on your Pixel, one workaround that seems to work involves enabling auto-rotate and turning the phone to landscape orientation. This should bring up the keyboard, after which you can turn the phone back to portrait orientation and continue replying to the email.

Alternatively, you can try to attach an image to the email and then go back to the editor. That could work and bring up the keyboard. Restarting your phone, clearing the app's cache, or force-closing Gmail may also help temporarily solve the problem.

Based on the user complaints, this appears to be a bug in the Gmail app rather than Android itself. It does not seem linked to a specific Gmail build or Android version.

Given that Gmail is one of Google's most popular Android apps, it should hopefully roll out a fix sooner rather than later. For now, the company has yet to acknowledge the issue. Until a fix is available, you can try the workaround mentioned above or switch to a different email client.