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An incredibly fast search widget is coming to Chrome for Android, here’s how to try it now

Search is at the core of Google’s business, so it’s constantly making it easier for users to access it in one way or another. Most Android devices have a Google Search widget on the homescreen, but it’s not all that fast compared to directly searching in Chrome. Now, Google is speeding things up with a new search widget in the dev version of Chrome.

Placed directly on your homescreen, this 4×1 widget adds a very simple search bar to your homescreen which launches a search on Chrome immediately after tapping on the widget. The process takes barely a second, compared to a couple of the standard Google Search widgets (i.e. Google “Pill” on Pixel, standard widget on Galaxy S8 and other phones). This also immediately pulls up your keyboard and auto-suggestions to make things as fast as possible.

It’s a pretty minor change, but it’s very welcome one. While it’s not a super great-looking widget, it’s functionality is the fastest I’ve seen when it comes to search. This will eventually make its way to the standard version of Chrome, but for now, it’s limited to Chrome Dev, which is currently at version 60.

To try it out for yourself, head to the Play Store and download Chrome Dev. From there, go to the homescreen of your choice, access your widgets, locate Chrome Dev, and drag the new search widget to the place you want it on your homescreen.


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