Every day, we learn more and more about the upcoming Android 12. This week, an API is being developed to specifically help third-party custom launchers enable users to find data they need in an instant.
For clarification purposes, an API is an acronym for Application Programming Interface and its function is to act as an intermediary that allows two applications to communicate with each other.
For example, the Google search weather info on your home screen. Google isn’t in the business of weather data (yet), so they use a third party to give them this information.
And how do they do it, by using an API. The API facilitates the communication between Google and the third party to provide relevant data from user search queries. Google has numerous APIs including their recent sleep-tracking API which essentially works the same but for a different purpose.
Related; Android 12 could let you share your Wi-Fi password via Nearby share
Now to the matter at hand, Android’s new set of APIs under the name AppSearch will let you find literally anything on your phone via a search bar.
Have you ever forgotten the name of a document or a file and needed it urgently? Well, unlike Apple’s Spotlight feature that lets you search the name and instantly find it, Android does not offer this feature. However, it seems things are about to change soon.
I stumbled upon this in Android 12’s preview documentation. Android 12 might allow all launchers to integrate a universal search like spotlight🔍 pic.twitter.com/gkucmPZtNb
— Niagara Launcher – Now out of Beta (@NiagaraLauncher) April 3, 2021
The Android development team further explained that it’s a fully offline solution allowing for the retrieval of info from a phone’s contacts, apps, settings, and more.
Here are some of the AppSearch Library Features;
- A fully offline on-device solution
- A set of APIs for applications to index documents and retrieve them via full-text search
- APIs for applications to allow the System to display their content on the system UI surfaces
- Similarly, APIs for applications to allow the System to share their content with other specified applications.
If Android can develop and add this feature to the upcoming Android 12, it would affect the whole OS ecosystem for the better.
Next; Kenyans are calling more and sending fewer texts; WhatsApp is replacing traditional text messaging
Alfred Gitonga is a passionate tech news writer with a deep interest in smartphones and related technologies. He is a staff writer at Mobitrends.co.ke.
