Google’s Andromeda — a concept before its announcement (part 1)
In a few days, we will know what Google’s Andromeda OS actually is. But before then, there is still time to wildly speculate.
In a few days, we will know what Google’s Andromeda OS actually is. But before then, there is still time to wildly speculate.
Here is my shot, based on nothing more than wishful thinking.
[Before you begin: I’m just sharing thoughts here: nothing but a rough idea]
There will be two UIs
Google are not going to make Microsoft’s mistake again and try to make a UI for the big screen fit into the small or vice versa. There should be a cut-off point somewhere around 10 inches where the UI changes. No flipping back and forth like Microsoft’s Continuum project: if you buy a big screen device, you are going to have the big screen UI; if you choose a smaller screen device, you are going to have to stick with that. For the sake of user continuity, continue to call the small screen interface ‘Android’ and the larger ‘ChromeOS’. Use the brands you already own. But to make the distinction in this piece of writing, I’m going to be calling the new OS by its rumoured code name: Andromeda.
The Big Screen
I’m already fairly happy with how the small screen works with Android. All it really needs to learn from ChromeOS is the trick to seamless background updates. It is the big-screen version of the OS that I think has most to change.
Conversational Search
Google’s allo is pretty pointless at this time. It has a neat party trick of enabling shared Google searches within a conversation, but I don’t see that as enough for everybody to start downloading it; Google could just as easily build some kind of bot to plug into Facebook Messenger and loads more people would have access to it in an instant.
But Allo did introduce us to Google’s version of conversational search. You can chat with Google’s Assistant as though you are in conversation with it. It is fairly basic at this time, but Google’s controversial call to keep the conversation stored on their servers by default, rather than encrypted on your device, will mean that these conversations will get better far quicker than would otherwise be possible.
Conversational search needs to be baked into Google’s products from now on. Not only do I think conversational search needs to be at the heart of Google’s core Search web page, but it also needs to be a central feature of Andromeda.
In the sketch, you can see the sort of thing that should be displayed after typing a search term in the search box at the bottom left corner of the display. Google brings up a mini-version of its results within the conversational search window. You can see the normal options to filter via image, news and further options hidden behind the arrow, just like the normal searches.
Unlike normal search, you do not scroll down the page to see more results, but swipe right to see the next few results (if you look, they are peaking out from the right side of the conversational search pane). You can also navigate these by clicking on the appropriate ‘o’ from the Gooooooogle, just like on the main swipe page.
To further the idea of conversational search, options such as that to give feedback or ask for help are included as suggested further searches just above above the text box. This is where all suggested searches reside and should stretch across the bottom of the screen, like the quick replies do within Google’s Allo.
When new searches are applied, the results from the previous get pushed up, but are still navigable by scrolling up in the Conversational Search pane.
The result is a record of your search in context — you can see your first search, followed by your second, followed by your next, etc..
Conversational Search Tricks
— You should be able to grab hold of the Conversational Search pane and move it around as a window. In this way, you should be able to line up different Conversational Search windows and see your different searches, each one within its own context.
— I’d also like to see easy access to the history of your conversational searches, so you can cycle through them.
— I’d like to see Google make the most of its new messaging apps: I want to type ‘@John’ to start having an Allo conversation with my friend John, just like you can invite ‘@google’ into the conversation when speaking to John from the Allo app on your phone. Obviously, this would require Allo to be multi-device rather than locked to your phone number in quite the way that it is.
— Voice search is going to be central, which is why the microphone button is in the far left corner, where lots of folks are used to the Windows button being on Microsoft’s product. It is going to be the primary interface eventually, so it should be positioned in the prime spot.
— Long press on the microphone icon in the search box to do a ‘screen search’ (previously known as Now-On-Tap on Android) for the window you have open in the foreground.
Take a look at Part 2 for an idea about Workspaces and Widgets