How to Access Google Now on Your Jelly Bean

Google Now is an impressive part of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean (and it’s available for Ice Cream Sandwich devices). It can provide you with relevant information depending on where you are, what you’re doing, and what you’ve recently searched for. On the Galaxy Nexus, Google Now is accessible from both the lock screen and from doing a sliding gesture from the on-screen Home button. If you’re running a Jelly Bean port on any hardware that doesn’t have on-screen buttons, like the Galaxy S III, this gesture doesn’t work. You can still access Google Now from the lock screen of virtual-button less Android phones, but what if you’re passed the lock screen?

There are two ways we’ve found to access Google Now. The first is by just tapping the persistent Google search bar. The second is by placing a Google Search icon on your home screen. The latter method is especially useful so that accessing Now doesn’t require you to reach all the way to the top of the device.