New “Smart Features” Allegedly Coming to Android — Gestures, Address Detection, Predictive Copy-Paste


With Mobile World Congress behind us, many are already looking ahead for the next big even and for some, that will be Google I/O. This will be a big event for Google and it could be our first official look at some new features that will make it into the next big version of Android. Yesterday, an article published by VentureBeat shares three different features that we should expect to see in the upcoming release of Android O.

If true, it looks like Google is trying to be more predictive and to leverage its personal assistant services more than ever before. The first of these rumored features is being called Copy Less, and the source of this rumor told VentureBeat that Google wants to prevent people from having to copy text in one application just to paste it into another. The example they gave was switching from a messaging application to copy an address from Yelp. You could then just type “it’s at,” and then Gboard would suggest the address of the restaurant you just looked at.

It’s unclear if this feature will be baked into Android itself, or if it will limited to Gboard. The rumor also talks about Google being able to detect when an address has been typed in a messaging application. Right now, if an application wants to link an address to a navigation application, then the feature has to be coded into the messaging application itself. So this new feature will simply let you tap on the address to go into Google Maps.

The source of this rumor says they’re unclear if this will come in an OS update or through Play Services, or even if it will be limited to the new Android Messages application. The last rumor in this report from VentureBeat talks about Google integrating figure gestures system-wide. The example given talked about drawing a C on the screen (from anywhere in Android), and you would be given a list of your recent contacts.

Source: VentureBeat

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