Google is giving the Search bar on your phone a much-needed facelift
TL;DR The latest Google app update (version 16.17) introduces a new look to the Search bar widget.
The redesigned Search bar puts more emphasis on the custom shortcut button.
Users have a variety of available shortcut tools to choose from.
One of the most used widgets on your Android phone is likely to be the Google Search bar. After all, it's there by default, and it's the easiest way to initiate your search for anything. As Google continues to improve the looks for many of its tools, the Search bar just got a lot better.
We first spotted changes coming to the Search bar in an APK teardown, but it appears that some of these changes are now beginning to roll out to more users, according to 9to5Google. The focus of this redesigned Search bar is the custom shortcut.
Previously, the Search bar was a simple pill that featured Google's 'G' logo on the left end, and then had the custom shortcut, voice input, and Google Lens buttons on the right. Pretty straightforward, though the shortcut icon might not be the most obvious.
But that's changing with the new design that Google is rolling out, starting today. The Search bar is now encapsulated in another elongated pill, which is also more noticeable when you adjust the transparency slider. The 'G' logo is still on the left, but now the Search bar itself only has the voice input and Google Lens buttons on the right. The custom shortcut button has been removed from the search bar and placed adjacent to the bar as it's own standalone button. This makes it easier to notice the shortcut button overall, and is easier to select.
In order to set your custom shortcut, you'll have to highlight the Search bar widget and then select the pencil. Then you'll want to enable the Shortcut by selecting it and choosing the action you want to set it to. Your options are: None, Translate (text), Song Search, Weather, Translate (camera), Sports, Dictionary, Homework, Finance, Saved, and News.
In our APK teardown that we mentioned, we found that the shortcut button could give you a pop-up menu with all of the available tools, so it served more as a 'Multi Shortcuts' option. However, the redesign that is currently rolling out does not seem to have this multi shortcut menu as an option just yet. It would definitely be more useful than a single action, but we're not certain when this particular feature will be released.
But this new Search bar may not be all good news. Those who have grown accustomed to a particular layout with the old widget size may be in for a surprise, as it is now 4×1 instead of 3×1. If you had your app icons in a certain layout, this change may disturb your home screen if you really care about aesthetics.
It's exciting to see Google continue to improve its services to be more streamlined and give us more personalization. Hopefully the multi shortcut option isn't too far off, because that would make the Search bar widget way more useful. Why limit yourself to one shortcut when you can have them all?
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