Even before the advent of the ubiquitous Google Assistant, you could already search for things through voice on the web. But now for some reason, Google is finally adding this feature on the mobile version of google.com on the Chrome for Android app. You’ll now see a microphone icon in the search field, both in the homepage and also on every search results page that you’ll see. If you don’t want to use your digital assistant, then this is another way for you to have a more convenient search experience.
The voice search functionality is pretty easy to use. When you tap on the microphone on google.com on your Chrome browser, you get a fullscreen interface that will tell you to “speak now”. Then you’ll see “Listening” once it starts to detect audio, and when possible, live transcription will show up. If you decide that you don’t want to do a voice search after all, there’s a close icon on the top right area.
If you ask it direct questions like “What’s the weather?” or “What time is it in New York?”, you’ll get a voice response. But if the questions are a bit more generic, the page will load search results. You get a fullscreen interface on mobile so it should be easy to navigate through the results even if you don’t get a voice answer.
While you already have several ways to do voice search on Android, through Google Assistant, the Google app itself, and even Gboard, having the gray (not Google colors) microphone icon on google.com is just another convenient addition in case that’s easier for users. This is now available on Chrome for Android only and not on other browsers.
VIA: 9 to 5 Google
