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Google Play Music on Android is now playable from search results

Google Play Music on Android is now playable from search results

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Just hit play

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Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Google Play Music is debuting a useful feature in its Android app that lets you play music straight from search results. The update spotted by 9to5Google comes several months after the same feature rolled out on Play Music’s web interface, and appears to be enabled server side — meaning it might be a while before you see it in your own app, like we do in ours.

If you’re searching for a song, album, or artist, the first three results in the drop-down menu will show your results with artwork on the left and a play button on the right. If your results are for a song or album, tapping play will mean they start automatically. If it’s an artist, music will play in shuffle mode.

The search function.
The search function.

Auto suggestions that usually pop up have been pushed lower and are limited to three results. When you push the play button, a brief note pops up to indicate the song will begin playing before being sent to the bottom of the screen as seen in the screenshot below.

Sometimes, however, the app struggles to find the right song, even if those songs are on Play Music. Google should be able to find them, but oddly doesn’t at times.

Otherwise, playing straight from the search drop-down saves time by reducing the number of taps required to play your music. Any update that lowers the time-to-music ratio is a worthy update.