Searches can be initialised with text or voice input criteria. Android’s search can help you find contacts, applications and application content, like music. You can even search within messages you’ve sent and received. Using Android’s built-in search can save time and help you find what you’re looking for.
Start searching
Android devices all have a Search button. This button usually looks like a little magnifying glass and may be found alongside the Home and Menu buttons or, sometimes, on the physical keyboard of the device. Press the Search button while on the home screen to bring up Android search features. A screen similar to image will appear and the most recent searches that have been performed will be displayed. This includes Google searches performed while logged in to a Google account from any web browser, even on other computers. This can be handy when doing work between machines.
Enter search criteria
In the search text entry box, start typing a search term. For instance, try typing the words ‘linux user’ for your search criteria. The drop-down list below the search entry box will display search suggestions as you type, and it will keep updating your results with each new letter.
Performing the search
While typing in Step 2, you saw search suggestions appear in the drop-down list. To perform a search immediately using one of those suggestions, simply tap one of them to perform the search. Otherwise, finish typing your intended search criteria and either tap the ‘Go’ button or the righthand arrow button next to the search entry box.
Viewing search results
Once a search has been performed, the results will be displayed. How search results are displayed depends upon the type of search. In this case, we’ve performed a web search, so the search results display in the browser, while, for example, matches in the Kindle application will take you to matches in your books.
Searching the device
Performing a Google web search on Android – a mobile operating system championed by Google, remember should come as little surprise to you. However, Android search features can do a lot more than just search the web. Start by searching for an application. For instance, let’s say we have the Amazon Kindle
application installed. Instead of simply launching the application tray and scrolling through all your applications, you can simply search for that application by name. To do this, press the search button again, and this time, type the search term ‘kindle’. If you have the application installed, you’ll see the Amazon Kindle application appear on the search suggestions list. You can launch the application simply by tapping on the suggestion.
Enabling application content search
Beyond web search and searching for applications, you can also search for other fundamental Android features, like contacts. You can search content within an application, if that application includes in-app search capabilities and if you, as a user, have enabled searching content within that specific application.
To enable searching within applications, you must configure the device search settings. To start, press the Menu button from the search screen (see Step 1) and choose ‘Search settings’.
Configuring search settings
The ‘Search settings’ screen has multiple settings, but choose the ‘Searchable items’ setting. This is where you can configure application content searches. Once you’ve selected the option, you’ll see a list of applications much like image. Of course, the applications installed on your device will vary and not all Android applications support content searches. To make content from a specific application searchable, make sure the checkbox next to that application is enabled. Note that it is up to the individual application to decide what content it exposes to searches. Individual applications may also have additional search settings for fine-tuning purposes, which would be found within the app, not in the device-wide settings.
Searching application content
After you’ve selected which applications you’d like to easily search, return to the search screen. This time, press the button with the drop-down arrow to the left of the text-entry box. Here, you can choose where to search; you’ll see a list of choices, including the applications you have enabled for content searches as well as options to search the web, applications, contacts and the ‘All’ option.
Let’s say we have the eBay application installed and have configured it to enable content searches, If we select the eBay application icon, type some search criteria and perform the search, we’d see results within the eBay application. The behaviour of search results for a specific application will vary as it’s up to the application to decide what to do. However, you can always hit the Back button to return to the initial search screen.
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