GoKawiilRita El Khoury / Android Authority
TL;DR Google appears to be getting Photos ready to support the ability to search through your pics from the Pixel launcher.
Evidence in both Google Photos and recent Android 17 Beta builds hints at a new framework for Pixel launcher search bar integration.
While Photos may be the first, other apps could make their own content searchable through the Pixel launcher.
Your phone’s home screen is arguably the most important piece of its interface — we’re constantly coming back to it when getting started with new tasks, and a smartly configured layout with our top apps and a few helpful widgets can go a long way towards helping you get the most out of your phone. For Pixel users, that includes Google’s ever-present search bar at the bottom of their screens, quickly connecting them with apps or offering a shortcut to searching on the web. But for as much as it already does, Pixel launcher search could be about to get a whole lot more powerful.
Google’s been busy tweaking the Pixel launcher search bar experience lately, already replacing it with the Google app Search widget and giving us customized shortcuts. Now one of its next tricks looks like it could be expanding its search powers to Google Photos — and maybe some other apps, too.
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We’ve seen Google experiment with searching images like screenshots before, but we could be about to get a much more robust image-search experience thanks to some new integration with Google Photos. Looking through the app’s latest version 7.74.0.906046556 update, a couple new text strings catch our eye:
Code Copy Text <string name="photos_settings_genericconnectedapps_searchapi_dialog_title">Access to Google Photos</string> <string name="photos_settings_genericconnectedapps_searchapi_settings_description">The %1$s can access your photos so you can search them from the Pixel launcher. <a href=help:>Learn more</a></string>
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