Google tests new looks for the search bar on the Chrome app for Android

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Google has been testing different looks for the beta version of the Google Chrome app for Android, looking for the best place to put a shortcut to its AI Mode. Announced earlier this year at Google I/O, AI Mode is designed to help Google fight off challenges to its dominating search business from AI apps. AI Mode stops those with a complicated search query from having to go through multiple search results to get the information they want.

To help push AI Mode, Google has redesigned the search bar on its apps. That’s because, ideally, if you have a question you need answered, the search bar is where you would go first to help get your answer. Google is now looking to see how it can best put AI Mode in front of the eyeballs looking at the Android version of Chrome. Mishaal Rahman wrote that he found a new look for the Chrome search bar when he opened a beta version of the mobile browser on an Android phone. Google had moved the Lens shortcut and voice search icons out of the search bar and placed them below the bar.

Comparing the current look of the search bar on the Android Chrome app and one revision being tested.

The current Chrome search bar on the left and one of the new looks being tested on the right. | Image credit-Android Authority

Google did this so it could move a shortcut icon for AI Mode right into the search bar, putting it right in the front of Chrome users. It’s the digital equivalent of following that old real estate idiom, “Location, Location, Location.” Additionally, the old “G” logo is placed on the left of the search bar, and the old “Search or type URL” phrase written in the search bar is replaced with “Search Google or type URL.”

The second search bar for Chrome beibg tested by Google.

Another alternative search bar design being tested to put the AI Mode shortcut right in front of the user. | Image credit-Android Authority

Google also tested another look for the Chrome search bar. On this variant of the design being tested, the Google Lens and voice search shortcut icons found under the search bar had another shortcut added, this one for incognito mode. You might call this the “Heisenberg” icon for its resemblance to Walter White in Breaking Bad. In this version, the “G” logo is absent from the search bar, and the wording used inside the bar is the previously used text.

Both different looks for the Chrome search bar were found in beta version 139.0.7258.32 of the Chrome browser for Android. Neither search bar being tested with an AI Mode shortcut appears on my Pixel 6 Pro running Android 16 QPR1 Beta 3. In my case, I’m only running version 138 of the Chrome app which explains why I’m not seeing the search bars being tested by Google.

Eventually, Google will replace the current search bar on the Chrome app for Android since whichever new one it selects should drive more users to AI Mode and help Google defend its search bar business from getting attacked by what the company sees as AI interlopers.