Google Assistant gains a search bar for easier app searching

There are a lot of apps available for the Google Assistant, and a new search bar makes searching for them easier than ever before.

The Google Assistant is easily one of my favorite virtual assistants to date, and while I already call upon it to do a variety of things, finding new services/apps to take advantage of hasn't always been very easy. That is, until now.

In a new update to the Google Assistant, a search bar has been added to the top of the Explore page to help you find specific apps that you're looking for. For example, searching "lights" will show a list of apps that allow you control smart lights and previews of commands that you'd use for said services. Tapping on one of the results will take you to a page with more information on what it does, example commands that work with it, and a link for setting up the service with the Assistant.

You've previously been able to search through first and third party apps to download for Google Assistant, but before the search bar was added, you were forced to scroll through predefined lists that categorized apps by their main function. You can still search through apps in this manner if you prefer to do so, but the addition of the search bar is nice for hunting down a specific service that you'd like to use.

To access the Explore page and its new search bar, you have a couple options at your disposal. With the first method, you can hold down on your home button to bring up the Google Assistant and then tap the blue circle in the top right corner. Additionally, you can open up the Google Home app and tap on the Explore tab in the hamburger menu on the left.

This isn't a drastic new addition to Google Assistant, but it's one that should make navigating through its many functions considerably easier.