Google is test-piloting an updated voice search experience in its Android app, and it’s a great deal cleaner with some very nice animations, as well as more focus on finding music.
Early testers, meanwhile, are reporting a pared-down interface that replaces the list of recent queries with an AI-flavored prompt and pulsing waveform, along with more conversational assistant-style interactions.
What’s changing in the Google app’s voice search
The experiment, spotted in the Google app beta (version 16.36.40.sa.arm64 for some users), replaces the familiar “listening” sheet with a minimalist panel that simply asks, “What’s on your mind?” and has a dynamic, AI-driven animation. Also gone are the recent searches and suggested queries that once sat below the microphone panel — a conscious decluttering that forces attention directly onto the prompt itself.
Song search — Google’s Shazam-like feature — also receives a facelift. The new pane repeats the pulsing design but with a larger directional cue that says “Play Sing Hum,” which makes it less hidden and more of a first-class action. Functionally, I’m not sure how much will change: You’ll still be able to hum or sing for several seconds as Google’s models try to match the tune to a track.
A step toward AI-first voice experiences in Android
Reflecting the company’s general AI design language across Android, the new look contains a conversational prompt, and animated waveforms are fast becoming its voice standard. It’s a small but telling signal: Instead of framing voice input as a traditional search field, it appears to be moving away from a navigational chore and toward the first line of a conversation with an assistant. That’s in line with the direction of Google’s AI efforts elsewhere on mobile.
User experience-wise, with fewer placeholder searches you see reduced visual pollution and potentially quicker task starts — something that usability researchers like Nielsen Norman Group have been telling us for years. It also gently nudges users toward more open-ended prompts rather than the quick-tap recycling of past questions. Whether that adds to satisfaction or frustrates power users is still to be determined.
Song search has its day in the sun with new design
Google’s “hum to search,” launched a few years back, relies on audio fingerprinting and machine learning to match a sung or hummed melody with possible candidates. By bringing “Play Sing Hum” more to the fore, the company is signposting its belief in this feature and throwing down a gauntlet of sorts for competing dedicated music recognition tools used by hundreds of millions of listeners around the world.
The more strident call to action should also help guide casual users to find the feature sooner. We find that clear verbs (like “Play” or “Sing”) in usability testing tend to lead people to engage, and the animation underscores that when the screen is listening, the app is looking specifically for music as opposed to speech. Look for more potential players humming a chorus than typing the lyrics they remember.
Limited rollout and how to check if you have it
As is often the case with Google experiments, this seems to be a server-side rollout. Even with the beta version installed, you might continue to see the old interface. If the test has made its way to your device, tapping on the microphone in the Google app or its home screen widget will launch the new panel with that animated waveform and an empty question prompt. You can also access the song browser: it drops down from the top when you tap “Play Sing Hum” from the sheet.
There is precedent for this all over Android. The Play Store experimented with its own redone voice search sheet recently, suggesting a broader push toward consistent voice UI patterns across Google’s surfaces. And expect the company to iterate fast, especially if feedback demonstrates that users like the AI-styled prompt more than old-fashioned lists of suggestions.
Why this is important for Android users right now
Voice is still an important portal for hands-free moments — when driving, cooking dinner, or doing anything where a faster interaction beats screen time. In addition, streamlining the interface can save seconds on a task and make voice less of a bolt-on proposition and more of a primary input method. Aligning voice search with its AI interface is a brand play, too, for Google: one consistent aesthetic, whether you’re asking about the weather or humming a chorus stuck in your head.
If the test graduates to a broader release, we could see more fluid integration between classic voice search, AI-driven prompts, and media recognition, plus consistent animations and cues throughout the Google app itself, in the Play Store, and elsewhere on Android. This refresh, meanwhile, is all the more indication of how swiftly the voice experience on Android has evolved — less list-focused, more conversational, and now with some music savviness.