Google Now on Android gets “OK Google” hotword, real-time Waze traffic data, and website updates

Google on Wednesday updated its official Search app for Android to bring new features to Google Now, including website update cards, movie and TV recommendations and real-time traffic data from Waze. The updated app also brings the “OK Google” hotword found on the Nexus 5 to other devices for US users.

One unofficial benefit of the new Search app is you can sideload the Google Experience Launcher found in KitKat, according to Android Police. When Google began updating its Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets to Android 4.4 KitKat, users reported that it lacked the Google Experience Launcher found on the Nexus 5. Manually extracting the launcher on the tablets resulted in some bugs, but those appear to have been fixed with the latest Google Search update.

➤ Google Search for Android