Psst: Come close. I’ve got something to share with you, and I don’t want everyone around here to hear it.

Oh — hi! Sorry, I didn’t realize you were here. I was actually talking out loud to my phone just now, as one does, thanks to a nifty new air gesture I set up that activates my device’s voice search anytime I bring the thing close to my face.

Kinda wild, right? It is — and it’s also a massive efficiency-enhancer for those of us enlightened enough to be using Android. (Sorry, iPhone pals. But hey, Apple might give you a watered down version of something similar in another seven to 17 years, and it’s sure to be ~completely magical~. Hang tight!)

Usually, when we think about Android gestures, we think about the standard on-screen swipes and taps that help us navigate our devices — or maybe even the advanced maneuvers that make it even faster to fly around a phone like a total nerd wizard. Today, though, we’re gonna broaden our view of “gesture” to include a simple kind of physical movement that doesn’t even involve any direct device contact.

It’s a brilliantly easy way to interact with your Googley gizmo and open up new productivity-boosting possibilities — and, oh yes: It’s yet another fantastic feat you’d only be able to accomplish here in the land of Android.

[Oh, hey — love shortcuts? My free Android Shortcut Supercourse will teach you tons of advanced time-savers. Start here!]

Your Android air gesture advantage

All right — first things first: The wand we need for this fancy feat of ours is a splendidly useful Android power-user tool called MacroDroid.

MacroDroid is an advanced automation app that’s been appreciated by advanced Android phone owners for many a moon now. It can help you set up all sorts of experience-enhancing awesomeness, and the purpose we’re using for it today represents just a tiny fraction of its potential.

But it’s a good one. So to start, go grab the app, if you don’t already have it installed. It’s free with an optional premium upgrade that eliminates ads throughout its setup interface and enables some extra capabilities (which aren’t required for anything we’re about to go over). It doesn’t sell or share any sort of user data or require any disconcerting permissions.

Got it? Good. Now:

• Open up MacroDroid and make your way through its initial welcome screens.
• Once you see the app’s main menu screen, with a bunch of colorful boxes, flip the toggle in the upper-right corner into the on and active position to activate MacroDroid and get it up and running.
• Then, tap the first box in the list — the one that says “Add Macro.”

• Now, in the red box labeled “Triggers,” tap the little plus symbol and then select “Sensors” followed by “Proximity Sensor.”
• Make sure “Near” is selected in the pop-up that appears and tap “OK.”
• Then, in the blue box labeled “Actions,” tap the little plus symbol and then select “Device Actions” followed by “Voice Search.”

At this point, your screen should look a little somethin’ like this:

JR Raphael, Foundry

And, guess what? Our work here is almost done! Give yourself a preemptive pat on the back for encouragement, and let’s wrap this bad boy up so you can start putting it to proper use:

• All that’s left now is give this macro we created a name by tapping the “Enter macro name” line at the tippity-top of the screen and typing in any title you like — “Raise,” “Raise for input,” “Herman T. Schmidthopper,” or anything at all, really. It doesn’t make much difference, and you’re the only one who’ll ever see it.
• Last but not least, with that out of the way, tap the left-facing arrow in the upper-left corner of the screen and confirm you want to save your creation.

You should then see it showing up and activated in the MacroDroid macro list:

JR Raphael, Foundry

And with that, take a deep breath: You did it! Look at you, you splendid little virtual sorcerer, you.

At this point, all that’s left is to test out your awe-inspiring new air gesture by raising your phone up close to your forehead, as if you’re about to whisper a saucy secret into its screen. (Don’t worry. I’m not listening.)

Once the phone gets close enough, the proximity sensor should detect your closeness (ooh, baby…) — and you should see a prompt for your voice search show up on the screen.

The very first time that happens, you’ll probably have to tell it that you want this action to use Google — or whatever virtual assistant you prefer, if you’ve got others installed — for your voice search.

Then, every subsequent time you bring the phone close to your suspiciously shiny mug, it’ll instantly fire up your preferred voice input companion, and you can just yap away with whatever question or command you want.

The interesting twist here is that recent signs suggest Samsung is developing a similar sort of setup for its future Galaxy gizmos — but there, it looks like the air gesture will be limited to letting you raise your phone to talk to Bixby, which obviously isn’t something anyone actually wants.

The beauty of this approach is that (a) you can use it this instant, on any Android device, no matter who made it — and (b) you’ve got complete control over how it works. You could play around with having a totally different kind of action launch when you move your phone close to your face, or you could even shake up the gesture itself to involve something else entirely (like, for instance, shaking) instead of the proximity move.

Here on Android, the power is squarely in your hands. And now, you know exactly how to embrace it.

Air five!

Get even more advanced shortcut knowledge with my free Android Shortcut Supercourse. You’ll learn tons of time-saving tricks!