Google already offers several ways to quickly get information on your smartphone, including the Google search widget on Android phones, but today it’s adding one more to the mix.
Google is adding shortcuts to its Google app on Android and iOS, and on Google.com on the mobile web. These shortcuts are meant to give you quick, easy access to things like sports scores, a coin flip, Google Translate, Tic Tac Toe, the weather, and more.
These tappable shortcuts will appear right below the Google search box. If you’d like to see more than the handful Google shows there, you can tap the arrow to see all of the shortcuts available.
As for why Google is rolling out these shortcuts, the company says that while the Google search box is good for finding specific info, these shortcuts provide more general info when you just want to catch up on a specific topic. For example, you can go to the Entertainment shortcut to see what’s playing at a local theater and to get TV and movie news. Or you can tap the Sports to see a stream of the latest scores.
The Feed shown in your Google app is somewhat specific, surfacing scores for your favorite teams or names of people that you’ve searched for before. With these new shortcuts, Google aims to show you a general feed of the topic that you’re interested in. You can also use the shortcuts to quickly jump to games and tools, like a level tool when you need to make sure that something is straight but only have your phone. There’s even shortcuts for features that Google offers a dedicated app for, like Google Translate, so that you can use the tool without having to hunt for and download a new app.
