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- 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’.
These references suggest that it’s likely you’ll be able to choose whether or not to show the search bar in Android 17, though the site wasn’t able to enable this feature in the current beta. Still, the fact that there’s code pointing to this suggests it might be ready in time for Android 17’s finished version, and we may even get a look at this during the next Android Show on May 12.
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 aren’t any new features here, but there are various 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 flickering white dot to appear at the top of the screen, the screen to appear fuzzy or frozen, and the keyboard to appear frozen or incorrectly positioned in certain apps.
These sound like quite annoying problems that are definitely worth resolving. The update has started rolling out to select Pixel phones already, but Google notes that it will roll out over the next few weeks in phases, depending on your carrier and device. So you might not have it just yet.
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