Own a Google Pixel phone? Android 17 might finally let you remove the home screen search bar

An Android 17 beta contains clues that you might soon be able to remove the search bar on Pixel home screens
This could perhaps be part of the finished version of Android 17, but it’s not yet available even in beta
The May Pixel update is also now rolling out, complete with various bug fixes

We already know lots of what Android 17 is likely to offer, but one other major change has just leaked: it seems Google might finally let you hide the home screen search bar on Pixel phones.

This search bar is a convenient way to do a web search on Google without having to open the browser first, but it also takes up quite a lot of screen space, so if you don’t do many searches, prefer a different search engine, or simply like opening up the browser, then you would understandably want this feature gone.

It’s actually surprising that it’s taken so long for Google to enable a toggle for the search bar, as it seems like it should be optional. But based on some digging that Android Authority has done in Android 17 beta code, a toggle could be coming soon, as code strings mention things like ‘customize search bar’, ‘search bar settings’, and ‘show search bar at the bottom of your home screen’.

Beating the bugs

But while that feature might not launch for a while, Google is now rolling out a smaller update for Pixel phones. This is May’s Pixel update, and it’s coming to all models from the Google Pixel 7a and Pixel Tablet onwards.

There…

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