When you want to take a screenshot on your Android device, you’re usually going to have to contort your hands to press down the power and volume down buttons, or a similar combination. If you’ve got the new version of Google’s Android app and Marshmallow, though, the process of taking a screenshot just got a lot easier.
The latest version of the Google app (5.7.13) adds a new feature to Google Now on Tap that’ll let you easily take a screenshot by just tapping a button. To activate it, you’ll need to bring up Google Now on Tap (which is done by holding down your home button) and then hitting the Share button in the lower left corner of your screen. The device will then take a screenshot and ask you how you’d like to share it.
What’s interesting about the screenshot is that your device’s status and navigation bars will be wiped clean, so you won’t have to worry about everyone seeing your cluttered navigation bar that’s full of icons. One other detail that’s worth noting is that using Google Now on Tap won’t save your screenshot to your device like it does when you use the power-volume down method. That can be good or bad, depending on what you want to do with the resulting screenshot.
To get this new feature, you’ll need version 5.7.13 of the Google app (you can sideload it using APK Mirror) as well as Android 6.0 Marshmallow. If it’s not yet appearing for you, just wait a little bit for the server switch to be flipped.
Most folks may not regularly take screenshots on their Android phone or tablet, but for those times that they do, this new Google Now on Tap method will make things super easy. The fact that this method also wipes the status bar and doesn’t save the screenshot in your phone’s storage are nice touches for those times that you just need to fire off a quick screenshot. And if you do want that information, the power-volume down method can still be used. Hooray for choice!
