Google is certainly on a launching spree. Earlier this week, it had celebrated its 18th birthday and on the occasion made some big events at the Google Event held in India including the launch of brand new YouTube Go app.
The company has now announced that the Google app for iOS users, also called the Google Search app version 19.0 will be updated and shall bring new features.
The Director of Product Management, Google, announced in a blog post that three new features will be added to the app along with a few bug fixes, with the aim to make it more stable, private, and video-friendly. The updated version of the Google Search app version 19.0 is now available for download at the App Store.
Incognito Mode
The first and foremost feature that has been added to the Google Search app is the Incognito Mode. Incognito mode is the secret browsing feature which when enabled makes sure that the search history and the browsing history is not saved on the device. It will work exactly the way it functions on the web browsers. Enabling the function is an optional choice given to the users. To enable it the private browsing feature, the users will have to pull out the Settings menu within the Google Search app and tap on the “Turn on Incognito”, which is displayed at the top of the menu.
Another great addition to this Incognito mode update is that Google has provided support for Touch ID for this mode. Google says that by using the Touch ID, the users can be assured that they re-enter the existing incognito session in case they exit the app. A 3D Touch shortcut has also been provided by the tech giant that allows the users to enable the incognito mode by just long-pressing the Google Search app icon.
YouTube Video Playback Update
In addition to the incognito mode, with this latest update, Google has also packed in some support for the fundamental video playback feature of YouTube. This means that the users can now directly play the YouTube videos from their search results in the Google app. So now the users will not have to jump to the YouTube app every time to watch the videos from the Google Search results. Though it is a small update, it is no wonder a quality change.
Stability Improvements
Finally, the third major addition to this update is that , across the board. So while using the Google app on iOS-based devices, the users will now get to experience lesser crashing situations. Google has reported that the crash rate of its app has been drastically reduced by 50 percent and so the tech giant claims that the app is twice as stable and reliable than any of its earlier versions.
Another feature that went unmentioned is that the Google Now cards have been rechristened to Feed. This change mirrors a move that was much the same as on its Android app.
Surprisingly, the App Store rankings show that Google Search stands at the second position when it comes to its Utility rating and at slot 30 for its Overall ranking, which is higher than the rankings for Google Chrome which are at the number 3 and 34 slots for its Utility and Overall rating respectively.
With these updated features, Google is looking forward to providing better and efficient service to a wide range of its audience.