Google may soon let Pixel users remove the search widget’s new AI Mode shortcut (APK teardown)
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google recently added a new shortcut to the Pixel Launcher’s search widget, making it easy for users to launch Search’s AI Mode from the home screen.
- This new shortcut hasn’t gone down well with users, with many finding it intrusive.
- Google may soon give users an option to remove the AI Mode shortcut from the search widget.
Google recently rolled out an easier way to access Search’s AI Mode. The company added a new AI Mode shortcut to the Pixel Launcher’s search widget, allowing users to launch AI Mode right from the home screen. But this change hasn’t gone down well with all users. Many find the new shortcut intrusive and often tap it by mistake when trying to perform a regular search. Thankfully, Google appears to have a solution in the works.
An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
While digging through version 16.26.64.sa.arm64 of the Google app, we discovered an upcoming option that will allow users to remove the AI Mode shortcut from the Pixel Launcher’s search widget. As shown in the following screenshots, this new “Customize Pixel Search Box” option will be added to the Google app settings.
Tapping on it will open a new page with a toggle that will let users easily remove the AI Mode shortcut from the search widget. In the current release, turning off this toggle reverts the search widget to its old design. However, that may not be the case when the toggle rolls out to users with a future build.
The toggle appears to function as intended and removes the AI Mode shortcut from the search widget, suggesting it may already be ready for prime time. We’ll update this post as soon as it’s widely available.
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