Google Introduces Handwrite Search Function For Mobile
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
Google Introduces Handwrite Search Function For Mobile
Finding new ways to improve and refine its search function, Google has introduced a new feature for mobile search designed to make typing out search terms even easier. The new handwriting function allows mobile users a new way of searching without having to hit the keyboard, useful if you’re somewhere where it’s difficult to properly type or you find the idea of drawing words more exciting.
For those smartphones with a stylus (Galaxy Note, we’re looking at you!), this is going to be pretty handy already, but the best part is once you activate it, practically the entire screen is your canvas. When you’re writing messages on the Galaxy Note, for example, you only had a small space to do it in and recognition tend to be hit and miss, but the entire screen makes writing far easier and the chances of recognizing what you’re writing far easier.
Impressively, Google’s feature is not only good at recognizing individual letters, but also the speed of which it does it. Even in 3G, the process is smooth. Once. There are buttons for spaces and deleting words so it’s not entirely touch free, and the best results occur when you draw large characters, but even writing properly gets decent results. When you get to writing out unique characters such as the @ or € symbol, things get a little hazy, but chances are you only be writing specific words and not using such symbols.
Google say that the version works best on Chrome, but this is only because when we tried it on Safari, it wasn’t there. It’s probably a way to entice more people to use Chrome instead and to be honest, Google’s entitled to do that if it wishes. The feature works best when you either have a stylus or if you’re using a tablet device (for the extra writing space), but it’s already functional for smartphone devices.
Handwrite is available for iOS5+ devices Android 2.3+ smartphones and Android 4.0+ tablets and recognizes 27 different languages.
Do you think Google’s new mobile Handwrite search function will come in handy? Leave your comments below.