New Google Search feature to let users call, text or email contacts from search result

Google has started testing out a new feature that will let users call, text or email directly from search results. The feature seems to be undergoing testing as only a few have been seeing it appear in the Google Search app results. The same was discovered by Android user James Scott Jr who noticed something new while searching for contacts using the Google Search app.

Currently, Google Search users on Android are treated to simple name cards when they search for a specific contact. Clicking on it leads to the contact page in from the Contacts app that gives users options for what they want to do with the search result (text, call, WhatsApp etc.).

The new update changes things a bit and lets users do more in fewer steps. Search for a name and results from Contacts will now appear with an option to call, text and even email that contact right from the search result.

It’s all about convenience and the feature helps cut down on the number of taps in order to find and call a contact from the list. While there is no mass public roll out happening just yet, it indeed seems like a feature that may make the Google Search app a lot more useful for searching through locally stored data. Google’s focus with search is more to do with online and contextual information than locally stored content.

Spotlight Search on iOS is a lot more handy when comes to finding locally stored and online data. Spotlight Search introduced in iOS 9 lets users search through native and third-party apps, giving users a vast variety of results across apps. This is partly to do with third-party developer support where they needed to add extra code to support the feature. Developers did enable the feature in a couple of months after the feature was announced and a majority of apps do support the search feature on iOS today. In fact, the ability to do more with a contact search result (call, text) has been available for almost a year now.