Google tests Android app that doesn't require installation

Google is testing technology that lets you use apps without having to download them to your smartphone, part of its plan to expand its share of the rapidly growing mobile search market.

You use your smartphone and search for information on Google? You see the information you need in the search results. However, when you click on it, you are required to download the application to your phone to be able to view it - simply because the search results are taken from that application.

Google wants to make things easier for users, allowing them to use the app without having to download it to their phone. Google's new technology works like this: If you search for cheap hotels using the Google app on your Android smartphone, Google will return the results it finds on the web as usual. However, there will be information that is pulled from hotel apps (like the Hotel Tonight app). If you click on this information, Google will stream the app to your device so you can use it without having to download and install the Hotel Tonight app on your smartphone's memory.

This is a very convenient addition for users, helping us no longer waste time waiting for applications to download to our devices like before. Google said they were able to do this thanks to a technology that helps stream a video to your phone from the Internet while the application is running on a computer miles away from you.

Since it is still in the testing phase, Google can only apply its technology to 9 applications: Hotel Tonight, Weather, New York Subway, My Horoscope, Daily Horoscope, Visual Anatomy Free, Useful Knots, Gormey, and Chimani. In addition to making it easier for users, this new feature, if expanded, will also help Google increase its mobile search market share.

This isn’t the first time Google has tried to improve mobile search. In April 2015, the company announced a policy to prioritize search results from sites that are optimized for mobile. In addition, Google has partnered with developers to take information from developers’ mobile apps and display it on Google search (deep linking technology). Google says it now has more than 100 billion links to information in apps.

Google is able to stream Android apps like this thanks to technology it acquired from startup Agawi last year. Technically, Google isn’t actually giving you access to the app. Streaming gives you the feeling that you’re inside the app, but the search giant is actually streaming a high-resolution video that you can tap and scroll through like a regular app. The only difference between the installed version and the streamed version is a banner at the bottom of the screen that says “App streamed by Google.” The company also says it’s bringing the new technology to iPhones, but it’s unclear when that will happen.

According to ICTNews