Skip to main content

SwiftKey for Android is getting search built into the keyboard

SwiftKey for Android is getting search built into the keyboard

/

But it’s Bing search, not Google

Share this story

Image: SwiftKey

Microsoft-owned SwiftKey is getting web search built into its keyboard on Android. The company is hoping that users will find the feature makes looking up information faster within a conversation.

To access the feature, simply open the toolbar on the keyboard through the + symbol and select the Search icon to type in any search terms. Given the Microsoft connection, it makes sense, but is still unfortunate that the search bar is powered by Bing, and there doesn’t seem to be any way to change this to Google search.

Through the feature, you can access search results that appear in a browser tab overlay. You can then tap to screenshot, crop, and share with contacts. When you send a screenshot, it also comes with a small hyperlink to the webpage. The feature is available for users in 11 countries: the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, Brazil, India, Italy, and Spain.

The feature was available for testing through SwiftKey for Android beta, which is a public app anyone can download to try out features in advance. I noted a slight delay before the results actually showed up in the search engine within the conversation I’m having, but it’s still faster than actually having to tab out and open a new browser page.