After testing last year, the Google app on Android will now let you set a custom Shortcut in the Search widget.
If you have the Search widget on your homescreen (this is different from the Pixel Launcher bar at the bottom), open Google app settings > Customize Search widget. In addition to Theme — System, Light, Dark, Device, or Custom — and Transparency, you now have “Shortcuts.” Your nine options are:
It appears to the left of the microphone and camera, with all three buttons still appearing at 3×1. (At 2×1, you just get the ‘G’ — which opens the Home/Discover feed — and Lens.) The shortcut icon is just a solid color and not themed. Most of them open a Search results page, including Weather (instead of the app). Others directly open Google Lens and Song Search.
This is a nice quality-of-life improvement if you’re on a non-Pixel device, though it is available on Google phones and tablets.
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We’re seeing this Search widget shortcut widely rolled out with version 16.3.34 of the Google app, which is available in the stable channel this morning.
More on Google app:
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