- An Android 17 beta contains hints that you’ll soon be able to remove the search bar from Pixel home screens
- Perhaps this could be part of the final version of Android 17, but it is not yet available even in beta.
- The Pixel May update is also rolling out, with several bug fixes.
We already know a lot about what Android 17 is likely to offer, but another big change has just leaked: It looks like Google might finally let you hide the home screen search bar on Pixel phones.
This search bar is a convenient way to perform a web search on Google without having to open the browser first, but it also takes up quite a bit of screen space, so if you don’t do many searches, prefer a different search engine, or just like to open the browser, it’s understandable that you might want to remove this feature.
In fact, it’s surprising that it took Google this long to enable a toggle for the search bar, since it seems like it should be optional. But according to some research Android Authority has done on the Android 17 beta code, there could soon be a change, as the code strings mention things like “customize the search bar,” “search bar settings,” and “show the search bar at the bottom of the home screen.”
These references suggest that you’ll likely be able to choose whether or not to show the search bar in Android 17, although the site was unable to enable this feature in the current beta. Still, the fact that there is code pointing to this suggests that it could be ready in time for the final version of Android 17, and we may even see it during the upcoming Android Show on May 12.
Defeating insects
But while that feature may not launch for a while, Google is now rolling out a smaller update for Pixel phones. This is the May Pixel update and it will come to all models from the Google Pixel 7a and Pixel Tablet onwards.
There are no new features here, but there are several bug fixes, including fixes for slow wireless charging speeds when the battery level is between 75% and 80%, and an issue where the camera app would freeze while recording video and adjusting the zoom level.
There are also fixes for issues that caused a flashing white dot to appear at the top of the screen, the screen to appear blurry or frozen, and the keyboard to appear frozen or positioned incorrectly in certain applications.
These seem like pretty annoying problems that are definitely worth solving. The update has already started rolling out to select Pixel phones, but Google notes that it will roll out over the next few weeks in phases, depending on your carrier and device. So you may not have it yet.
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