Google‘s voice search and Google Now is quickly becoming one of my favorite and most used features on Android. Since initially launching Google Now with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Google has continued to improve this app into an awesome all-in-one solution. Today Google Search (Google Now for 4.1+) received another update, although the details remain behind closed doors.
Just a few days ago Google Search received a major update that brought forth tons of new features, improved results, and better prediction, and today they’ve updated it once again. Google introduced voice actions like “what’s this song” “scan a barcode” “post to Twitter” and more.
Today however users on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and above are noticing another quick update specially listed for Google Now users, although Google never updated the changelog. What this means is we all got a decently sized update but have no details on what actually changed. So far looking through the app we haven’t noticed any new features, but there is one thing that we have noticed — speed.
Google Now appears to be much faster than before. Now this could just be a placebo effect but Google Now launches faster, not to mention results and everything else appears a bit faster too. Most noticeable was the launch times from our homescreen, or just launching Google Now in general. Siri is already way slower than Google Now, and it just got faster. If you’ve noticed anything new after today’s “Google Search” update drop us a comment below.
[via Google Play Store]
I do not feel the difference between this and the last version. Now Google, optimize for 4 . 2. My nexus 10 should be lag free.
Wow… Just wow. I’m very excited by this update that rolled out today. The experience is super Snappy. Instant pop up of the search on my Nexus S 4.1.2. This is update is very welcomed.
I don’t think there’s a placebo effect at all… I updated without seeing anything about “speed improvements” but the act of launching Google Now seems quite a bit faster – almost instantaneously. I like it!
One thing that I noticed is that it works now with my Bluetooth speakerphone connected.
It would previously only show initializing after hitting the microphone.
Speed improvements on both Nexus 7 and GNex. Also finally allows voice-to-text via Google Voice.