Google may be planning to give users more control over how they search the web, as a hidden setting in the latest Android 14 update suggests.
According to Nail Sadykov, who discovered something new in the latest Android update, the Pixel Launcher app in Android 14 QPR 2 Beta 3 has a hidden option called “Search Engine”. This option allows you to Choose the app you want to use to search the web, and it will then affect the search and content on your home screen.
This means Pixel users may soon be able to use their default search engine for the Pixel Launcher’s universal search and other on-device search features. Currently, Google Search is the only option for these features, but the new setting implies that Google could allow other search engines like Bing, DuckDuckGo and others to be used instead.
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Another clue that Google is working on this feature comes from Lance Adams, who spotted “flags” referring to search engines on Chrome for Android. The #enable-search-engine-choice flag enables the search engine choice screen and related features, which will be displayed in the first runtime experience, profile creation flow, and more. The flag also enables the new UI for the search engine settings page on the PC version of Chrome and Android.
However, it’s unclear if changing the search engine will also change the appearance of the search bar widget on the home screen of the Pixel Launcher, or if it will remain unchanged.
The reason for this change could be related to the regulatory pressures that Google is facing around the world. Google has been accused of being a monopoly in many of its businesses, and some regulators have demanded that Google let users choose the default search engine on Android. The new Pixel Launcher setting could therefore well be a way for Google to comply with these different regulations.