Android Apps Could Soon Open Automatically Based on Contextual Data

BY Evan Selleck

Published 19 May 2016


Android Apps

There are some Android devices out there that when you plug in your headphones, the phone will pop up some suggestions for what you might want to open, app wise.

In most cases that means plenty of music-related app offerings, like Spotify, or the built-in music player. It looks like Google wants to go a bit above and beyond this feature, though. The company is going to give apps installed on your device access to contextual information, like the weather, or if you’re running, and then let apps launch automatically based on that data.

Google gives an example, such as plugging in your headphones when you’re going on a run, and Spotify automatically launching a playlist to start playing tunes. TechCrunch‘s example indicates that the feature would encompass the camera app, too, and launch when you go outside — based on how many photos of the great outdoors you take.

That contextual knowledge could be used to integrate information into things like photos, too. So if you do take photos of nature quite a bit, that information could be used to allow the user to search for specific photos, like “sunny outdoor photos,” and the app would bring those up. (bobbergdesigns.com)

Google says developers can get access to the early APIs right now. However, it’s unclear when the feature might launch for the public.

What do you think of the idea?

[via TechCrunch; Google Developers]