Google has announced plans to begin displaying search results for content within Android apps as part of its search results.
The new change will see an ‘open in app’ button added to search results of users on an Android app when a website also has a related app installed on a users’ device.
“Let’s say that a user is searching for a movie. With app indexing, Google will begin to include deep links to apps in Android search results,” Google software engineer Chaesang Jung said.
“When the user taps on the ‘Open in app’ deep links, the app opens up directly to the movie in question.”
The mobile and online services giant has already announced a number of apps participating in a trial of the new service, including AllTheCooks, AllTrails, Beautylish, Etsy, Expedia, Flixster, Healthtap, IMDb, moviefone, newegg, OpenTable, Trulia and Wikipedia.
In a post on the official Android developer blog, the company said search results from apps will begin being displayed in the US over the coming weeks.
In order to use the new feature, website developers will be required to add a link tag in the head section of their website.
Developers will also need to add intent-filter elements for search results into their Android apps’ manifest files, setting out which activities are launchable from a Google search result.
The service will initially be rolled out in a limited trial, with the company posting a form where developers can post an expression of interest in participating in a trial of the program.
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
