Pixel Launcher now allows you to open apps even sooner

Google seems to be rolling out a small however significant improve to the Pixel Launcher that makes opening apps sooner than earlier than. After beforehand testing the function with a restricted group of customers, studies now counsel the change is reaching a wider viewers.

As flagged by customers to Android Authority’s Mishaal Rahman on his Discord channel, Pixel house owners are actually seeing the flexibility to launch apps from the Pixel Launcher by partially typing an app’s title and urgent the Enter key on the keyboard. In different phrases, there’s no must faucet the app icon from the outcomes record.

Once you seek for an app within the present expertise, the Pixel Launcher shows the app as the highest outcome. Nevertheless, urgent the keyboard’s bottom-right button triggers a Google Search as a substitute of opening the app. With this new change, that button transforms into an arrow or Enter key when an app match is detected, and urgent it opens the app immediately.

Whereas it is a minor tweak, it undoubtedly improves one-handed usability by eradicating an additional faucet and maintaining the complete interplay on the keyboard.

Apparently, this isn’t a very new thought. Earlier variations of the Pixel Launcher behaved equally earlier than Google eliminated the performance in late 2022. The corporate briefly experimented with restoring it in 2023, however that take a look at by no means expanded past a small rollout. This time, nonetheless, the rising variety of person studies suggests Google is lastly committing to the change.

The rollout nonetheless seems to be server-side, which means there’s no clear app replace tied to it. Some customers are seeing the brand new habits, however I’m nonetheless not seeing it on my Pixel 10 Professional XL operating the steady Android 16 QPR2 replace. That is typical of Google’s gradual function rollout, and I’m hoping it is going to be broadly obtainable to everybody quickly.