10 Awesome Things You Can Do With Google Now On Tap.
Over the past few months, Google Now has become more and more of Android. Let me give you a timeline – at the beginning; Google Now was just a search box at the top of the Android home screen. In Android 4.1 Jellybean, Google Now started providing basic weather / stock forecasts. And now, starting with Android Marshmallow, Google has introduced Now on Tap , a much more accurate and feature-rich version of Google Now.
Unfortunately, most people don’t use Google Now On Tap to the fullest.
So let’s take a look at some of the little-known but useful features of Google Now on Tap. Or watch the video demo at the end of this article.
How to use Google Now On Tap?
Google has introduced a new feature in Marshmallow that is designed to bring more information at your fingertips. Just press and hold the Home button on any screen and Now On Tap will display helpful information about everything on the current screen.
For example, if you’re reading any article about reviewing a movie, Google is now on tap to provide the IMDB rating for that movie, along with the star cast and other useful information.
Note. On some devices, the shortcut to open Google Now when pressed (ie, Home button pressed) may be different. In this case, any shortcut to open Google will now work with Google Now when clicked. The first time you launch Google Now when clicked, it will ask for your permission to enable it. Alternatively, you can first enable this feature by going to Google App Settings and then enabling Now On Tap .
So now that we have all the settings, let’s take a look at all of its features based on different categories.
1. Find information quickly
This is the most useful feature that brings together all of our daily activities that we would otherwise do manually. With Google Now On Tap, you can easily set alarms, reminders, and see your estimated time of arrival at home or work – all in one place.
You can also find restaurants, ATMs and post offices nearby, which will come in handy when you first visit a location.
2. Definitions of words
It’s pretty easy to have a dictionary 24/7, just install any type of vocabulary app on any word and you’re done. But with Google Now, it’s something wonderful. Just pick a word you don’t understand and Google Now will show you the meaning. Simple as hell!
3. Check the authenticity of the news article
Nowadays, many fake news articles are spreading on social media like WhatsApp, Facebook, etc. We all went through it.
Therefore, to verify its authenticity, instead of launching a browser and searching the web, you can simply hold down the Home button and see how other media companies have covered this topic.
4. What is the song
So you’ve found a new song on your music player and you want to know more about the artist, his upcoming album, tour or something like that. Just fire up Google Now On Tap and it will give you everything you need to know about the song, artist, and even what they wrote on social media.
Related: How To Find A Song Title With Little Information
5. A quick IMDB review
We all pay attention to two things before watching any movie or TV show. Firstly, this is the trailer, and secondly, the IMDB rating.
With Google Now On Tap, you can view both features at the same time without closing either of them.
6. Image recognition
With this amazing feature, Now On Tap surpassed all expectations. Through image processing, it can analyze the image and provide context about any famous structures, landmarks, books, movie posters, works of art and more. This works for both a real physical object and a photo of it in a magazine.
Just launch the camera app, point the lens at an object, press and hold the Home button on your device. Google Now on Tap will upload the image to its server (internet connection required) will parse the image on its server and provide you with quick information about it.
7. Share screen shots with a touch
To share a screenshot, you typically press and hold 2-3 hardware keys as instructed by your device manufacturer. But with Google Now On Tap, you can easily share it by simply holding the Home button and then selecting the Share icon at the bottom right of the screen. Google Now will take a screenshot of the current screen when tapped, and will also load a sharing menu to quickly share this screenshot through other apps. Useful if your dongles don’t work.
8. Copy text from any application
There are several Android apps like Facebook, YouTube that don’t let you select text on the screen. One way to do this is to install any Universal Copy app.
But why install anything if it can be done initially. Just hold the Home button, select and copy any text you want.
On the subject: How to copy non-selectable text on the screen
9. OCR- Extract text from any application
The reason you can select text from any application is because Now On Tap treats it like an image. With this logic, you can also select words that appear on the screen in photos or videos to access any additional information.
You can simply launch the camera app and then use Google Now On Tap to extract that text. Again, since the image processing is done on a Google server, this feature will need an active internet connection to work.
Related: Easy Way to Extract Text from Images and Printouts
10. Translate on the go
When you are in another country, it becomes quite difficult to understand their instructions, place names and more, as most of it is written in their native language.
Now that your guide is somewhere else, you can simply take out your Android smartphone, open the camera, and Google will translate it for you. You don’t even need to install any third-party translation app for that.
Packaging:
Google Now On Tap is a universal portal for the fastest possible access to everything that appears on your screen. On a larger scale, Google Now On Tap is effectively becoming a one-stop-shop for Android.
Although you may need an active internet connection as part of its processing is done on the server itself, like identifying objects or extracting text from images, etc.
Video: 10 Great Things You Can Do With Google Now on Tap