Robert Triggs/Android Authority
long story short
- The Google Opinion Rewards survey gives us a glimpse into some possible reimaginings of the Google Search widget that exists in all GMS-equipped Android smartphones.
- Google could add more buttons, surface content on the device with universal search, offer news showcases, and even make searching easier through artificial intelligence.
If you use any popular Android smartphone, chances are you’ve unboxed it and set it up to find a prominent Google search widget in the center of your home screen. This search widget is included as part of the Mobile Application Distribution Agreement (aka MADA), and its positioning and appearance are consistent across all devices included in the Google Play Store. But if recent Google Opinion rewards are any clue, Google may be willing to shake things up.
When setting up my new phone, I removed the Google Search widget from my home screen. Shortly after, Google Opinion Rewards submitted a survey to me asking if I had removed the search widget from my home screen and why I had done so. Toward the end of the survey, Google asked my opinion on these possible search widget reimaginings:
As the preview shows, the search bar may be getting an upgrade. Among the options raised in the survey, Google appears to be experimenting with a search bar widget with the following possible features:
- More buttons make it easier to search in different ways.
- The ability to search your device’s content from the Google search bar is similar to the universal search feature.
- News display above the search widget bar.
- Ability to use artificial intelligence search via the search widget bar.
The ability to use artificial intelligence on the search widget bar is the most interesting of the options, as it’s very much in line with Google’s recent ambitions to implement artificial intelligence with Google Gemini. Adding AI search functionality via a search widget, and further making it part of MADA’s obligations, will be the only way to get AI into the hands of millions of Android users around the world.
Note that Google has not officially confirmed any of these redesigned search widgets. But the survey does give us some insight into Google’s thinking about the future. In some regions, the search widget allows the use of different search engines besides Google Search, so how this will work is also unknown. We hope to find out soon if Google has changed the search widget in any way.