Lanh Nguyen / Android Authority
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TL;DR
- The Search Live camera interface in the Google app could receive a few design tweaks, including the ability to minimize the camera window and move it around the page.
- Google could also introduce new bubble animations for Search Live when it’s active.
- Although the transcript button has disappeared in the redesigned interface, it’s too soon to tell whether it’s gone for good or simply relocated.
Search Live in the Google app lets you get real-time answers using voice commands or a combination of your voice and the phone’s camera. While it does its job pretty well, Search Live’s existing camera layout takes up the entire screen and can make some UI elements hard to spot. Google is now working on a design revamp to bring the focus back to the answers rather than the camera feed.
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In version 17.64.13 beta of the Google app, we enabled a revamped camera view within Search Live that can be instantly minimized and moved around the corners of the screen. This redesign also removes the glow at the edges of the screen that currently appears when your video feed is active.
Rather than taking up the entire screen, the upcoming Search Live redesign uses a smaller viewfinder, with a grab handle at the top to further minimize the window. We’ve seen Google Gemini also working on a similar viewfinder revamp, following in the footsteps of the ChatGPT app.
Another change we’re noticing is that the Transcript button appears to have disappeared. Since these changes are still under development, it’s too soon to tell whether it’s been removed for good or if Transcript has moved to a menu.
In any case, you can view transcripts from the AI Mode search history page, accessible via the hamburger menu (with a sparkle) icon in the top left of the updated Search Live viewfinder.
Lastly, this redesign also features a bubblier animation at the bottom as Search Live listens and responds to your query. We spotted this design tweak in early September, so it’s not surprising to see it here.
While these are welcome visual changes for Search Live’s camera interface, it’s difficult to say when or if these features will roll out more widely via the Google app.
⚠️ An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
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