Fans of Google Now who want the quickest possible access to their information from their home screen have had to deal with a large, arguably ugly widget for some time now. Google seems to be addressing this issue with a new update to the Google App. Pointed out by Redditor navjot94 and seemingly rolling out at random, the update enables a new option that allows users of the Google search bar on their homescreen, depending on their launcher, to see a small, transparent bar underneath their main home screen search bar that holds some of the latest information from their Google Now feed. The kicker is that, for the time being, the feature seems to be rolling out at complete random.
Users are reporting seeing a new setting, bearing the text “Widget”, within their Google settings. Some said it appeared after an update to their Google App or joining the beta, but others are saying it just sort of popped up. Whatever the case, the setting allows a tidbit of Google Now information to be displayed below the search bar in Google Now Launcher by moving the search bar up just a hair to accommodate. The bits of info are semi-transparent, and users can swipe them away like notifications from their status bar. Some users have enabled the feature and not found any changes to their home screen search bar, which has led to speculation that it will only display new information.
Right now, the only common ground between users who are seeing the feature seems to be the use of Google Now Launcher, aside from one report of the widget leaping into action on the stock TouchWiz launcher of a Galaxy S7 Edge owned by Redditor PugawanLearner, who was not a part of any betas. No Pixel Launcher users have thus far stepped up to confirm or deny, and some are speculating that it may either not come or be handled differently in Pixel Launcher, since it eschews the classic search bar for a “pill” of sorts. Some users are reporting having seen this feature ages ago, while others are reporting bugs. So far, nobody has been able to determine any rhyme or reason behind the rollout, so if you would like to see the feature firsthand, you’ll likely have some waiting to do.
