This week we take a look at Genius, the app from the geniuses that originally devised the music-annotation site Rap Genius and eventually expanded it into a new take on the wiki-style, crowdsourced knowledge base for practically anything.

Beyond user-contributed annotations that add context, trivia, or simply interpretations of rap lyrics, Genius has expanded its annotative purview to all kinds of music, along with poetry, historical texts, TV and film, news, and even public statements by government officials. To give you a sense of the company's ambitions, its motto has become "annotate the world."

However, one place Genius hadn't begun its annotation invasion was the Android operating system -- until now.

The reason goes back to a feud between Genius's founders (paragons of "brogrammer" culture) and Google, which began when Genius got caught trying to manipulate Google's search results and suffered some huge penalties.

Platform-Wide Material (Re)Design

Genius has since cleaned up their act, fired the brogrammiest of their co-founders, and have apparently mended relations with Google so much that the search giant's Material Design user interface language is all over not only the new Android app but also the Genius website and iOS app -- all refreshed this week in a massive redesign concurrent with the release of Genius on Android.

The platform (web, Android, and iOS) now uses Google-style information "cards" with a yellow and black theme, and the pages for songs include a new bold header image style. Rap Genius (and then just Genius) never seemed too overwhelming to use right off the bat, but the UI on the web and apps now have a much cleaner flow to them, and everything you need to navigate to is placed among a few obvious menu choices. 

Finally, for first-time visitors Genius has built a front page with a quick link dead center to an explainer page, and the front page includes a smattering of Genius's editorial picks or blog pieces along with the most popular pages on the site.

What Android 'Genius' 1.0 Can (and Can't) Do

For those unfamiliar with Genius, the site keeps annotations on song lyrics (and everything else) from being filled with spam, offensive comments, or simply useless "un-Genius" contributions with a moderation system the company calls "Genius IQ".

You earn "IQ points" through contributions that earn upvotes from the community. Collect enough IQ and you gain more moderation privileges, and you gain more points for effective moderation of others' annotations -- climbing through a ranking system of editors and moderators, each with a new set of powers on the site.

But it all starts with creating annotations and getting upvotes.

For Genius on Android, the good news is that you can upvote and downvote annotations right now -- and of course you can search and view them.

The bad news is that you cannot create or edit annotations on your Android device, yet. According to VentureBeat, which spoke with Genius's Android developer, the functionality will be coming soon.

"We're going to try and push out more updates as fast as we can," the Android app's developer Lisa Wray told VentureBeat, while promising a frequent update schedule, now that the app is finally available on the Google-built mobile platform. "We are a knowledge project. We've come a long way and we're bigger and more exciting."

However, other neat functions already available to the Genius app on iOS have made it to the first release version of Android Genius, including any available YouTube version of a track embedded at the top and, apparently, Genius's Shazam-style song search with the press of the mic button (though this function was broken in our test). Here's hoping the iOS song-matching feature -- which pulls up lyrics based on the music collection on your iPhone -- will be on its way as well.

Tap That App

Even if you don't find yourself with a pressing desire to understand the meanings and history behind your favorite tunes, Genius works as a fast, simple, and ad-free way to look up lyrics for practically any song. And with the promise of fuller features coming after the current version 1.0, the app should only get better from here.