If you’re like me and you have fat fingers that don’t do well when presented with a tiny touchscreen keyboard, then Google‘s new Handwrite search might just be what you’re looking for. Google has officially rolled out the beta for its new Handwrite search functionality, and it allows you to write your search term with your finger instead of typing it into the search field. As with regular Google Search, you can write-in only a partial phrase and then pick from a list of common search terms, which should come in handy when using Handwrite on a smaller screen, such as a smartphone.


Getting Handwrite set up on your device is simple enough – all you need to do is visit google.com on your device, click the “Settings” button found at the bottom of the page, and then enable Handwrite. Once Handwrite has been enabled, you simply need to click the Handwrite button that appears near the bottom of the screen, and voilà, you can now write out your search term with your finger. Handwrite is currently available in 27 different languages, and today Google shared a promotional video that previews this new functionality.

Google points out that Handwrite works best in the native Android browser on Android 2.3+ phones and Android 4.0+ tablets. Handwrite looks like it could be a pretty useful tool in some cases, so we’re excited to see where this goes as beta testing picks up and it eventually moves toward a full roll out. Check out the promotional video for Handwrite above, and be sure to keep an ear to Android Community for more information!

7 COMMENTS

  1. Works okay in mobile Chrome on 4.1.1. I don’t see myself using this all the time (I barely use Google Now except to show off the new hotness to friends on request) but it sure doesn’t hurt to have this feature for when you can’t be asked to type properly.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.