One of the features that Google introduced with the announcement of Android Pie was something they were calling "Slices." The idea is to offer an API for developers that would let them surface content from within their app to the user when using the Google app. For example, if you have a hotel application installed and do a search for a particular city within the Google application, that hotel app can bring up some options directly in the Google Search results. The Slices API received an early access program toward the end of last year and now some Pixel 3 and previous generation Google Pixel owners are starting to see this feature in action for the Settings application.

It looks as if Slices for the Settings application has begun to appear for various users over the last few weeks via a server-side update. It's unclear if this feature is making its way to more than just Google Pixel devices, but 9to5Google did check and noticed the feature was live on four of their Pixel smartphones. While the feature itself can extend back to Android 4.4, the devices that have received this feature have all been running Android Pie. This could be Google's way of doing a slow roll out of the feature just to make sure it's working properly.

As mentioned, it only seems to be in effect for the Settings application. So, for example, if you did a search using the latest version of the Google app for "Bluetooth" (without quotes) then under the suggested search results you'll see the settings toggle for your Bluetooth module. The same happens when you search for Wi-Fi, auto-rotate, night light, and many of the other features that you would find in your settings application. There even seems to be a way (likely with a long press) that you can hide an app's slices from the Google app for 30 days.


Source: 9to5Google