In addition to the “top” new features in Android Marshmallow, there are many productivity and usability improvements in Android Marshmallow as well. One of the them is the improved Android Marshmallow text selection feature.
Text selection with finger on a touch screen is always tricky.
Android Marshmallow does not offer a perfect solution. But it makes text selection a lot easier than in previous Android versions.
You now also can get contextual assistance on the selected text in Android Marshmallow.
In Android Marshmallow, there are a couple of new features on text selections, including:
This guide will try to show you how to use these new features in Android Marshmallow text selection.
Like in previous versions of Android, you can press and hold (aka long press) the text you want to select.
By default, a full word will be selected as shown below. You can then drag the handle to select more or less characters/words as shown below.
Once you finish the text selection, tap COPY as shown below to copy the text selected to clipboard.
To paste the entry (actually the last entry) in clipboard, tap and hold (long press) blank area in your text input filed.
A floating toolbar will pop out as shown below.
Tap PASTE as shown below to paste the entry into the location tapped.
In addition to basic select, copy and paste as mentioned above, you have more options in Android Marshmallow text selection.
As shown below, in Android Marshmallow, whenever any text is selected, a floating section toolbar will pop out on the screen.
You can find that there are 3 sections once text is selected. They are marked as 1,2 and 3 in the screenshot below.
In addition to the floating toolbar, if you are using Android Marshmallow text selection in a browser, you will also get the info bar in the bottom as shown below (marked as 1).
Tap this info bar will being you to the Google search result page for the selected text without leaving your current page as shown below.
For example, as Marshmallow is selected, the Google search results are for this term.
You can tap the close button (X) to close this pop out window without leaving your current web page/screen.
As shown above, the action options (marked as 2 ) in the floating toolbar includes:
After you tap Copy, the floating toolbar will be dismissed.
Additional Android Marshmallow text selection features are offered through the menu button (marked as 3 in the screenshot above).
Tap the menu button (3 vertical dots) in the floating toolbar to see the options.
By default, you can find:
For example, if I tap Assist in the menu, I will get the Google Now cards tailored for the selected text and for me.
As mentioned, the cards are offered in the similar way as in Now on Tap.
If you have any questions or encounter any problems on Android Marshmallow text selection, please let us know in the comment box below.
The community will help you.
For any questions or problems with Android Marshmallow, please check our Android Marshmallow Guide page.
If your question is about Android Lollipop, please check out Android Lollipop Guide page.
For other Android guides, please check our Android 101 page.
View Comments
Where is the setting to access the google thing?
Settings - Google.
In addition, each app has its own settings inside the app.
Hi. Unfortunately I've disabled it and I can't re-enable this feature (floating bar at the bottom).
Can you guide me over the settings menu?
ty
You cannot disable this feature without rooting. How did you disable it? You can try to reboot the phone tool see whether it helps.
Does anyone know how to move the toolbar when selecting text at the top of a screen & the toolbar sits intrusively over the text you are trying to highlight?
Tap and hold the 3 dots in the right side of the selection bar, you can then move it to any locations on the screen.
Can I Add More options in Three Vertical dots option other than Websearch , translation , assists . Actually I want to add other Dictionary App in this options.
Nope. Android doesn't offer such customization yet.