Google can stream apps to your phone, without you having to install them

Google has announced that it’s bringing app streaming to Android smartphones.

The new feature will be part of any searches that you make, with the aim of providing more useful information.

Searching for a hotel room, for example, can let you stream the full Hotel Tonight app, letting you use it with all the full functionality you’d receive from its natively installed version.

You can, of course, choose to install any apps you’re streaming, which is recommended if you’re going to use it often, or won’t always have a solid Wi-Fi connection.

Search already uses certain installed apps to bring up relevant information, such as providing an actor’s biography from the IMDB app, and this new streaming feature takes its usefulness one step further.

Only a handful of apps support both of these search features, but seeing as Google has been indexing app content for a whole two years, we expect the number of supported apps to increase fairly quickly.

[Google]

Esat Dedezade Contributor

About

Esat has been a gadget fan ever since his tiny four-year-old brain was captivated by a sound-activated dancing sunflower. From there it was a natural progression to a Sega Mega Drive, a brief obsession with hedgehogs, and a love for all things tech. After 7 years as a writer and deputy editor for Stuff, Esat ventured out into the corporate world, spending three years as Editor of Microsoft's European News Centre. Now a freelance writer, his appetite for shiny gadgets has no bounds. Oh, and like all good human beings, he's very fond of cats.