Skip to main content

You can now stream Android apps through Google Search

Google has announced users will now be able to stream in-app search results on its mobile search app. When the in-app search result is clicked, Google will stream the app to the Android device, letting users browse the native experience.

The new function should, in theory, let users book a taxi, plan a holiday or watch a video without downloading the associated app. Early test results show that streaming apps does work, however it is slower than the downloaded version.

Recommended Videos

“Because we recognize that there’s a lot of great content that lives only in apps, starting today, we’ll be able to show some “app-first” content in Search as well,” said Google in its related Blogspot announcement. “In addition, you’re also going to start seeing an option to ‘stream’ some apps you don’t have installed, right from Google Search, provided you’re on good Wi-Fi.”

Google currently has nine app developers supporting the beta: Hotel Tonight, Weather, Chimani, Gormey, My Horoscope, Visual Anatomy Free, Useful Knots, Daily Horoscope, and New York Subway. Users need to be updated to Android Lollipop or higher and have a stable Wi-Fi connection to stream an app.

Google is also making “app first” content more accessible on search. This means information stored in mobile apps, which don’t have matching web content, will be shown on Google’s search results. Google has 100 billion deep links into apps, including Facebook, Instagram, Airbnb, and Pinterest.

Google wants developers to integrate their apps deeper into the search engine, but we suspect larger app developers like Facebook, Twitter, Airbnb, and Uber won’t support streaming, at least initially. That’s because it gives Google control over how users view the app, and removes location and notification controls that native apps can utilize.

Adding more app influence does not mean Google is stepping away from the mobile Web. In fact, it recently launched the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project with Twitter, LinkedIn, Adobe, and a few other contributors to lower webpage load times.

Mobile is Google’s most important platform, with over one billion mobile owners using Google’s own platform, Android. What it needs to do is make sure its search engine remains the default place to find information, instead of the Google Play store.

David Curry
Former Contributor
David has been writing about technology for several years, following the latest trends and covering the largest events. He is…
Google IO 2025 summary: 5 big announcements you’ll want to know
Google IO 2025 logo on the surface of the earth

Google IO 2025 delivered us a huge helping of AI during the almost two-hour opening keynote.

Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, and colleagues got through an awful lot on stage, and while some of the talk was aimed primarily at developers, there were plenty of big announcements for us - the people on the street - to explore.

Read more
Google IO 2025 keynote recap: how the Gemini AI fest unfolded
The stage for Google I/O 2024.

The Google IO 2025 keynote has concluded. We spent almost two hours watching the announcements made at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California and if you're looking for anything other than AI you'll be hard pressed to find something.

Yes, Google spent pretty much the entire keynote speaking about Gemini AI and a host of new AI features it's bringing to its various platforms and tools. What's good is a lot of the new announcements are rolling out today, giving us the chance to try them out - such as AI Mode in Google Search for those in the US.

Read more
Google Gemini eases web surfing for users with vision and hearing issues
Accessibility improvements to Android.

Android devices have offered a built-in screen reader feature called TalkBack for years. It helps people with vision problems to make sense of what appears on their phone’s screen and lets them control it with their voice. In 2024, Google added its Gemini AI into the mix to give users a more detailed description of images. 

Google is now bolstering it with a whole new layer of interactive convenience for users. So far, Gemini has only described images. Now, when users are looking at images, they can even ask follow-up questions about them and have a more detailed conversation.

Read more