Skip to main content

Google’s new search feature makes picking the perfect movie simple

Over the past few years, programs like MoviePass have revived the once dying movie-going experience.  While films like Black Panther are guaranteed to draw huge crowds, even smaller movies are gaining larger in-theater audiences. In fact, in 2016 more than two-thirds of all Americans went to the movies at least once.

Since the majority of people use the internet to search for movie times and reviews online, Google decided to make the entire process more streamlined when you search through Google on a mobile browser or use the Google app on Android devices. Starting Tuesday, April 3, users can have access to a bevy of information about movies playing in their local theaters.

Google now provides you with a listing of movies by showtime at theaters in your area. Once you find a title that piques your interest, simply tap on it to learn more. Google will provide a synopsis of the film, review scores from IMDb, Metacritic, and Rotten Tomatoes, as well as showtimes for other local theaters. Once you have found the movie of your choice, simply tap on the showtime to purchase your tickets.

The feature is the latest in a series of updates for the tech giant that’s focused on entertainment. Last week, the company announced an update to its Google Play Movies and TV app for Android that allows users to quickly determine where a certain show or movie is streaming. The feature, similar to Apple’s TV app, aggregates information from most of the major streaming services (excluding Netflix) so you don’t need to hunt through a dozen different apps to binge watch your favorite series.

Right now, the feature is only available in the United States and India, although we expect to see it roll out to other regions eventually. To use the feature, simply search for a movie via a mobile browser or in the Google app for Android.  If you’re using an iPhone, you either need to search through your browser or wait a bit longer: Google says it will roll out the feature for the Google app on iOS in the near future.

Editors' Recommendations

Steven Winkelman
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Steven writes about technology, social practice, and books. At Digital Trends, he focuses primarily on mobile and wearables…
Google is launching a powerful new AI app for your Android phone
Google Gemini app on Android.

Remember Bard, Google’s answer to ChatGPT? Well, it is now officially called Gemini. Also, all those fancy AI features that previously went by the name Duet AI have been folded under the Gemini branding. In case you haven’t been following up all the AI development flood, the name is derived from the multi-modal large language model of the same name.

To go with the renaming efforts, Google has launched a standalone Gemini app on Android. Moreover, the Gemini experience is also being made available to iPhone users within the Google app on iOS. But wait, there’s more.

Read more
There’s a new problem with the Google Pixel 8’s camera
Someone holding the Bay blue Google Pixel 8 Pro.

The Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro were two of 2023's best Android phones, and they continue to be excellent phones in 2024. But in typical Google Pixel fashion, they also have a tendency to be pretty buggy — and that holds true four months after the phones' release.

On the r/GooglePixel subreddit, one user reported a bizarre bug with the Pixel 8's camera. When you're in your phone's camera app, tapping anywhere on the viewfinder should manually adjust its focus and exposure of what you're looking at. For example, if you tap on a dark area in your viewfinder, the exposure changes and the viewfinder gets brighter — making it easier to see your subject. If you tap on an area that looks too bright, it'll get darker. For some reason, this doesn't work as intended on the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro.

Read more
Arc Search is one of the best iPhone apps I’ve ever used
Using Browse for Me feature in Arc Search browser.

It’s 2024, a year when generative AI chatbots are browsing the web for us and presenting answers that are essentially a summarized version of the information hosted on different websites. The approach is convenient and saves us the hassle of visiting multiple ad-ridden, tracker-happy websites to find the required details.

Yes, a wall of information isn’t the most pleasing way to find answers, especially when these AI-generated summaries could result from hallucinated misinformation or sourced from garbage content-farm websites. Thankfully, the likes of Google’s Bard and Microsoft’s Copilot now provide citations, but tests have proved that these summarized answers are still not perfect.

Read more