Google Now On Tap Transforms Your Phone Into One Big Search Engine

Google Now Has The Power To Answer Any Question At Any Time

Google's latest Android OS feature looks like its set to change the way we search things on our phones.

Introduced at the I/O conference, Now on Tap seamlessly integrates with every other app on your phone to answer any question literally at the tap of a button.

Let's say you and your friends are having a conversation about the greatest Michael Jackson hits and you would like to find out more about Thriller.

Instead of entering your question into a Google, tapping your home button will pull up a concise list of contextual information related to whatever is on your screen at the time.

Google's demo shows the feature working with content in emails, YouTube, Facebook and browsers. It'll also be able to read your instant messages and text screens too and pull up any relevant data should you need it.

This demo from Engadget shows a Viber conversation:

After reading the screen Now on Tap pulled up these results:

This will ultimately make Android users walking encyclopaedias -- probably not a bad thing.

The "OK Google" voice commands should also be able to read your screen. So if you're looking at a restaurant and you want to know where it is, Now on Tap will instantly let Google know what "it" means.

The feature has only been available on preview but it should roll out later on in the year when Google launches Android M.

If it works as per Google's perfectly rehearsed demo at the conference, iPhone users might just become a little jealous.

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