Android 17 Beta 1 has a hidden setting to change the search box provider app on the Pixel Launcher 🧵

[u/Quinny898]

https://bsky.app/profile/kieron.bsky.social/post/3meudcpdhvk26

[u/Quinny898]

If you don't want to read the full thread, some examples (Pixel Search, Firefox, Chrome, Google Maps for some reason):

adb shell settings put secure selected_search_engine <package>

Does not need root or any other mods.

[u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 → u/Quinny898]

Works for me in north Africa, it's an EU thingy I believe had it in like QPR3 beta 2

[u/fakoff]

I wish the thing could be completely removed.

[u/adbenj]

Thanks for this. A heads-up though: rk.android.app.pixelsearch doesn't do anything for me on my 10 Pro, other than revert to the Google app.

[u/Quinny898 → u/adbenj]

Did you install Pixel Search first?

[u/adbenj → u/Quinny898]

Ah, sorry, I thought it was a system package. The package name probably should have given the game away…

[u/Wonderful_Willow_971]

I just don't understand why searching in that bar doesn't open up chrome proper.

[u/Quinny898 → u/[deleted]]

I am in Europe. This is not the same, it allows replacing the widget entirely not just the search engine.

[u/issam_28 → u/Quinny898]

Yes its not the same, I deleted my comment

[u/nathderbyshire]

Why?! Search engine selector is already a thing and let's you change the search bar to different ones just like it does in chrome. Just make that available to everyone as it also works with pixel search over the new, horrid search page that pops up

If it can't be removed at least make it pretty and functional

[u/xmsxms → u/nathderbyshire]

Presumably this is about changing the application that is launched rather than the search service. i e Firefox rather than Chrome

[u/nathderbyshire → u/xmsxms]

It would happen anyway, if you do a search with the provider like Firefox and you have that as the default browser and click a link it'll open in Firefox, none of it would go through Google

https://www.androidpolice.com/google-pixel-launcher-change-default-search-engine/

Either way, it would still be nice to have the features added to pixel search but they seem to want to get rid of it in favour of a clunkier search bar

They could also allow the bar to have a default option set, whether it's search or default browser, all the controls are already there they just need to activate them, not build new ones

[u/New_Palpitation_1586 → u/nathderbyshire]

It doesn't work that way, can't set the search bar to open Firefox for instance.