If you are someone who often uses Google’s Search from your mobile device, which is pretty much most people, then you may have noticed that over the last few months Google has started increasing displayed results from apps in your Search results. So in addition to the standard web link results, you have also been seeing results in apps that you may have installed on your device and which are relevant to your search query.
Well, it now seems that was just the precursor for something much bigger as Google has today announced a far more interactive feature. The new announcement details that not only will your mobile search results now show results from apps that you might have installed, but it will also actually offer you the ability to open the app and view the results in app form. To be clear, this includes apps that are not installed on your device. How this works is that Google is using their cloud based solutions to effectively offer the app-like experience. So by clicking on any of the app results, you will see the results in app form, in your web browser and they will display just as they would if you actually had the app installed on your device and open. In short, Google has designed a way for you to ‘stream apps’ without having them installed on your mobile device. To take advantage of the new feature, content which is compatible will come with a new “Stream” link besides the search results. Clicking the link will start the new streaming mode. You can see an example of how the software works in the image provided by Google below.
But that is not all. According to Google, they now have over 100 billion deep links in apps and this means that about 40-percent of all searches on Android devices now bring up relevant app content. As well as the ability to be able to stream apps, users will be able to see content from apps that do not have matching web content. Essentially, offering users the ability to find additional ‘app-only’ content. You can find out more about either new feature by heading through the source link below and over to the Google announcement.