Tip of the Week: Your Guide to Google Apps’ Helpful Android Shortcuts

The Android operating system offers a litany of additional features and shortcuts in most applications… all you have to do is long-press an application’s icon to pull up a contextual menu of shortcuts. Naturally, Google’s applications are no exception.

Let’s review some of Google’s application capabilities as they appear in these shortcut menus.

What Can You Do with Google Apps Via Shortcut Menus?

Calendar

By pressing and holding the application’s icon, you’ll see a shortcut to create a new event and one to create a new task in Google Tasks (which we’ll touch on again).

Chrome

You can open this app directly to a new tab—even an incognito tab—by long-pressing it.

Clock

The official Google Clock app provides shortcuts to generate a stopwatch or timer and to create a new alarm.

Contacts

If you have the Google Contacts application installed, you can access several features, including adding a new contact or opening one you’ve recently interacted with.

Docs

Whether you need to open a specific document or find one, Google Docs' shortcuts make it easier to do so.

Drive

Google Drive’s app has various shortcuts, allowing you to scan a new document with your camera, upload a new file, or access your often-visited folders.

Files

Long-pressing the icon for Google Files allows you to jump directly to your device’s downloads folder. Alternatively, you also get quick access to some data-cleaning tools to help you eliminate any files you no longer need.

Gmail

The shortcuts provided for Gmail can prove handy whether you want quick access to any connected account’s inbox or a fast way to draft a message.

Keep

The note-taking app fittingly comes with numerous shortcuts to make creating notes simpler. It offers the capability to start a fresh note of various types, from text-based to audio notes to photos.

Maps

If you’ve saved any locations in your Google Maps, you can select them for quick navigation. 

Meet

The shortcuts built into the Meet app allow you to create a new meeting or call, or even send a video to one of your Meet contacts.

Messages

If you use Google’s Messages app, you can long-press the icon to access recent threads directly without first opening the app.

Phone

You can long-press Google’s official phone app icon to redial your most recently called contacts.

Photos

If you take a lot of screenshots, long-pressing the Photos app icon will give you a direct path to access them.

Play Store

This application comes with a shortcut directly to the “My Apps” area, where you can—and should—track which apps have pending updates and apply them as appropriate.

Sheets

Similarly to the Docs shortcuts, the Sheets icon allows you to quickly start a new spreadsheet or search for an existing one.

Tasks

If you use Google Tasks to stay organized, long-pressing the app icon reveals a shortcut to quickly and easily create a new task.

YouTube

By long-pressing the app, you can quickly start a search for video content or jump directly to your subscriptions.

Hopefully, You’ve Learned a Few New Tricks to Make Your Google Applications More Efficient

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