Google’s Search widget is testing an even better shortcuts button (Updated)

Google’s Search widget is testing an even better shortcuts button (Updated)

nubia Z20 status bar and Google search bar 9

  • The Google Search home screen widget recently received a customizable shortcut button that gives you quick access to a useful tool of your choice.
  • Google appears to be prepping a more versatile version of the shortcut button that will give you access to all the available tools in a new pop-up window.
  • The new Multi Shortcuts button follows the updated Search widget design we first saw late last year and appears in a circle to the right of the search bar.

Update, March 1, 2025 (08:45 PM ET): The new Multi Shortcuts button we spotted Google preparing for last month now appears to be in active testing. While it’s not yet available on all devices, we’ve spotted it live on some of our Android hardware. It might be too soon to say when Google will feel ready to push the new widget design out to everyone, but we’re definitely making progress in that direction.

Original article, February 4, 2025 (06:18 AM ET): Google recently started rolling out the customizable shortcut button for its search widget that was first spotted in September last year. It gives you quick access to useful tools, like translation, a dictionary, finance updates, or song search. Currently, you can only customize the shortcut to launch one tool of your choice. However, Google could make it a bit more versatile with a future update.