Google Reportedly Trying out Changes to “Search and Discover”

It’s not unheard of for Google to go about making changes to its pre-existing software services, often foregoing the age-old notion of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” at times. As such, it seems that the internet search giant is making a few tweaks to the “Search and Discover” feature on Android.

According to information from the folks over at 9to5Google, using the Google Search app and Discover on Android devices no longer opens sites in fullscreen – web pages will now load as a “sheet” which appears as an overlay over your current background. This applies to search results or articles from the Discover feature.

The web sheet does run as a Chrome Custom Tab, showing users the “Running Chrome” text at the top of their screen while the page finishes loading. Tapping the first result will show the Google logo, prompting users to explore the rest of the search results. This behaviour was spotted in certain Pixel phones with Google app 13.37 (currently in Beta), so don’t expect to see it on more devices out in the wild.

At the moment though, it’s still unknown if this just a temporary test on behalf of Google, or if we’ll see an official roll-out soon.

Source: 9to5Google