Flipping for Gesture Search

Wednesday, August 11, 2010 | 3:31 PM

You may already be familiar with Gesture Search, our Android app from Google Labs that lets you search by writing out characters on the touchscreen of your device. Today we’re happy to announce a new version, Gesture Search 1.2, which includes a new motion gesture. By doing a “double flip”, or flipping your phone away and then back, you can start Gesture Search at any time. This eliminates the need to activate Gesture Search from a home screen shortcut. You can turn the feature on or adjust its sensitivity in Settings. We’ve also fixed some bugs and improved usability by adding accessibility support. Gesture Search is still in its early stages (as with all things in Google Labs) but we’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below. It is available for Android-powered devices running Android 1.6 and above, and can be downloaded in Android Market.


Update 8/11/10: If you're on an Android-powered device, click here to download Gesture Search. If you're on a computer, go here.

Update 8/19/10: An updated version of Gesture Search has been posted to Android Market, which contains some bug fixes. You can learn more about the double flip update here.

Posted by Yang Li, Research Scientist, Gesture Search team

27 comments:

pupooh said...

THE MOST useful app for my N1 and I'm glad I can get QUICKER access to it. Thanks!

Schleppy said...

Updated the app to 1.2 and it's really difficult to double flip trigger the app, even with the sensitivity turned all the way up. I'm on a Motorola Droid 2.2.

Still a great app, and I hope Gesture Search finds its way deeper into the Android OS (think writing gestures on the contact list :D ). Heck, I'd even be happy with the notification area.

Anonymous said...

The home screen "fluidness" decreased substantially after installing this. Not sure if it has something to do with the installation of Gesture Search. I use Launcher Pro.

- N1

Stefan Sarzio said...

I love Gesture Search! I'm glad to see it's getting developed further.

It would be great if it could become part of the OS, so that other app can make use of it, too.

The 'double flip' isn't for me, though.

Xikoota said...

Useful but the responsiveness is not so good.
How about defining gestured signs for programs?

Like eg. a cross = browser, a star = google maps, a circle = something else.

That would be one sexy tool :) (yes, I agree, the flipping tool is already sexy, hehe).

Gyg said...

The double flip gesture on normal sensitivity only seemed to work at all when I held the phone perfectly vertical the whole time, otherwise nothing, higher sensitivites never triggered. Droid X running default launcher. Also as a note, the particular double flip gesture DID successfully irritate my own repetitive stress injury in my wrists every time and probably isn't the most ergonomic of ways to invoke something.

Rozburn said...

Hows about a gesture that reverses the process, double flip in, then double flip out?

Patriiick said...

Double flip works perfectly for me on HTC Magic V1.6 with highest sensitivity setting.

Ed said...

Love this app, but double flip does not work very well for me. Running Motorola Droid 2.2 (FRG01B)

Paulo O. Andreoli said...

Could not get Double flip to work also but still a great app. I am using a SE Xperia X10.

Unknown said...

I love the app but I couldn't get the Double Flip feature to work as well. I'm on Xperia X10 too. Hope someone can fix it soon :)

mike said...

How about native support within apps? It would be great to be in the Contact list and draw letters to navigate through the list and only show "contacts". Same with music app... gesture support there would only pull up key songs/albums (not apps and contacts). Need a way to filter the results list easily.

cstenager said...

Also on X10, and can't get Double-Flip to trigger

Nathan Parrish said...

Also having difficulty getting the sensitivity set right. Was triggering it accidentally on the most sensitive setting, and have yet to successfully trigger it on the normal sensitivity. Droid X, standard launcher.

Great app though.this is my first smart phone and I'm so glad I went with Android.

Unknown said...

I thought it was just me. I can get it to trigger maybe one time in 10. What the heck, it's not hard to tap the icon. Still one of my most used apps.

... said...

It triggers reliably for me, but it takes like 7 seconds to go from the flip to the gesture search. Getting to gesture search after pushing the button on my home screen takes less than 2 seconds, so what's the point? I disabled it.

Unknown said...

But still no support for Facebook contacts...

Unknown said...

the flip ain't doing it on a droid running 2.2

Unknown said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

Unknown said...

I loved the last version. Upgraded to 1.2 and my battery is toast. The Gesture Search application on my HTC EVO 4G is absolutely eating the battery. Right before I uninstalled it the battery usage showed 69% Gesture Search and I hadn't even opened the program. My battery was gone and I could not successfully recharge it from an auxiliary battery pack (Tekkeon 1800) until I uninstalled it because it appeared to be using battery faster than the Tekkeon would feed it. No problems now after uninstall. I never turned on the flip feature.

Unknown said...

Same battery eating problem for me with the flip feature disabled. Only chance is to go into running services and stop the flip feature. How do I go back to the old version until this is fixed?

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Unknown said...

Tried to install either version and could not find either. How can I find it to download either version of it? (First version worked fine for me.)

Johan said...

Chalk me up as another SE X10 user who can't get Double Flip to work. :/ Great app in all other regards. I was just really looking forward to the shortcut.

eugene said...

Another here to say, it's killing my battery since the update. Please fix!!
10h 40m since unplugged
Gesture Search 94%
Cell standby 4%
Phone idle 4%

ly said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

ly said...

The recent update 1.2.1 (build 91) fixed the battery issue. You might need to reboot the phone to refresh the battery usage stats.