Microsoft's new app for Android Wear devices lets you bring up a Bing Voice search just by twisting your wrist.
The app, named Torque, means that you only need to speak when searching, rather than having to say 'Hey Google' to bring up Google Now's voice search.
You'll need to use Bing to search, rather than Google, but Microsoft's own search engine is able to recognise a range of natural voice commands for search such as "what's the weather like in London?".
To use Torque you need to download it from Google Play onto an Android Wear watch. The twist gesture currently works well with Samsung smartwatches such as the Samsung Gear Live and Samsung Gear 2, as well as the LG G Watch.
At the moment there are reliability issues with the Moto 360 but hopefully these will be ironed out. If you can't use the twist gesture you can bring up voice search in Bing by pressing the 'b' icon.
Other apps
Along with Torque Microsoft has released two smartphone-specific apps. Next Lock Screen is billed as a time saver lockscreen that gives you important notifications and lets you launch apps without unlocking your phone. It can also highlight apps depending on your location and where you use them the most.
Journeys & Notes is the other app, which lets you write notes such as reviews and travel tips that can be seen by people who visit the location at which you wrote them.
With rumours doing the rounds that Microsoft is set to launch its own smartwatch, the Redmond company might be testing the water with its free Android Wear offerings. We might not have long to wait to see if Torque winds up on Microsoft's wearable.
Via Engadget
