Google finally overhauls its Sound Search widget for Marshmallow

Sound Search is prettier in Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Screenshot: Android Police

Sound Search is prettier in Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Screenshot: Android Police

Google’s Sound Search widget, which has been baked into Android since 2012, has finally been given a new look for Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Sound Search no longer looks out of place on devices dominated by Material Design, and there’s now a mini version.

The Sound Search widget has gone without a new design for years; it was last updated to match the Holo design guidelines first introduced with Android 3.0 Honeycomb way back in 2011. Anyone who likes their home screen to look pretty has been avoiding it like the plague, then.

But in Android 6.0 Marshmallow, the Sound Search widget is whole lot prettier — as the screenshots below from Android Police demonstrate.

Sound Search in Marshmallow. Screenshots: Android Police

Sound Search in Marshmallow. Screenshots: Android Police

Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that there are actually two Sound Search widgets in the screenshots above — one of which is a new 1×1 mini widget that’s going to look right at home on clean and simple home screens.

Unfortunately, the new Sound Search widget is not a shareable APK, so we’ll have to wait until Marshmallow makes its debut this fall to get our hands on it.