It would be great to be able to perform a “web search” on selected text on Android. This is built into most apps and browsers.
After selecting text, the context options appear. Selecting “web search” opens the default browser/search engine.
Chrome:
Current options on NewsBlur (v11.0b5):
Thanks!
I think this changed in the most recent Android app redesign. IIRC, it used to have the standard text selection pill that’s in other Android apps, but now it’s a slightly different visual style and lacks the web search option as you point out.
I use that feature regularly when reading articles to look up names, unfamiliar terms and concepts, etc. Now I have to do select, copy, switch to search app, switch back dance.
Went back to a build from March 2021 and the web view doesn’t have “Search” as a contextual option. Funny enough there is only an option to explicitly remove it.
Chrome vs Firefox have different buttons for “Search” so I’m assuming they have a custom implementation. This is what I’ll continue with as well and see what are the possibilities.
Ticket created https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur/issues/1572
“Web search” was added as an option and it will open the system default browser via a search query intent. This could be moved to an in-app browser if desired.
