Google tracks your searches and visited pages, which helps personalize your search results and ads. To avoid outdated or personalized activity affecting your content, here’s how to clear Google Search history on Android.
Why You Should Clear Google Search History
Privacy and security are the main concerns that might prompt you to delete Google Search data:
Privacy
Google uses your search data to build a profile that personalizes ads and results. Whatever you search, Google will start tailoring content to those topics, which might include subjects you don’t want to see.
Furthermore, if you share the device, others can view your search history even if you delete it from the browser. If you don’t want others to discover specific searches or don’t want to associate yourself with certain topics, you should clear your Google Search history.
Security
If your Google account or device gets compromised, your Google Search history can be used against you. This could lead to blackmail attempts if your search history contains sensitive information that others shouldn’t see. The hacker can exploit this information for targeted phishing or social engineering attacks.
An attacker could also use your history to further compromise your other important accounts.
Apart from privacy and security, the “filter bubble” is another concern that people may want to avoid. With too much content being personalized, it can lead to seeing only information and opinions that align with your interests.
How to Manually Clear Google Search History on Android
On Android, you can clear the Google Search history using the Google app. Ensure you’re logged into the Google account for which you want to delete the search history, and then follow the below instructions:
Note: if you don’t have the Google app installed on your phone, you can also access the Google’s My Activity page and manage your search history from there.
Open up the Google app from the app drawer and tap on your profile icon in the top-right corner.
Select Search history from the pop-up.
You’ll see all your previous search history here. To delete a specific search result, tap on the cross button on the right side.
To bulk delete data, tap on the Delete drop-down menu. You can choose to clear today’s data, all previous data, and a custom range. For the custom range, you can either choose a set period or delete all the data before or after a specific time.
Note: the data you select will be deleted immediately as soon as you choose the delete option. There won’t be any warnings or prompts. Make sure you want to delete the data before tapping on delete or choosing a time period.
How to Set Up Auto-Deletion for Web & App Activity
You can also set up auto-deletion for Google Search history so your old data isn’t used for personalization. However, you can’t specifically auto-delete your search history, all your other data in Google Web & App Activity will also be deleted. If you are okay with this, here’s how to auto-delete Google Search history.
Go to Search history again in the Google app and tap on Auto-delete.
Here, select the Auto-delete activity older than option and choose a time period below. Unfortunately, you can only select 3, 18, and 36 months here, and there is no custom time period.
Next, it will display the data it will delete. Confirm to proceed, and all data older than the selected period will be removed. In the future, Google will not retain data older than the selected period.
How to Disable Google Search History on Android
If you want no data associated with your account, you can completely disable Web & App Activity tracking. Your search results, Google Discover recommendations, and ads will no longer be personalized based on your recent activity. Here’s how to do it:
In the Search history section of the Google app, tap on Saving to Web & App Activity.
Tap on Turn off and choose either to disable the feature or to disable it and delete previous data as well. If you do not delete previous data, you will still see personalized results/ads based on the current data saved.
Tip: If you are disabling Web & App Activity to avoid personalized results and ads, then you can individually disable personalization instead. On the same Web & App Activity page, you can disable personal results and ads.
Overall, managing your Google Search history helps you manage personalized content. If you are concerned about actively managing search history, you should know how to remove Google Search history on your desktop as well.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I download my search activity?
Begin by going to Google Takeout, then click on “Deselect all” once you land on the Takeout page. This step is important, otherwise you will download far more than just your search history. With everything deselected, scroll down and click on “My Activity,” then on “All activity data included.” Click “Deselect all” once again, then “Search.” Finally, click on “OK” and download an archive of your search history.
Can I just clear the history in my browser?
It’s important to note that any search in your web browser is actually performed through a search engine. Clearing the history in your browser will clear your searches on the local device, but not the search history saved on Google’s server. In other words, Edge or Safari may not have your previous searches saved anymore, but Google still keeps that information unless you follow the steps above.
Can I recover deleted history?
Unfortunately, deleting your search history is a one-way trip. Make sure there is nothing you could want from your history prior to any history removal.
Image credit: All screenshots by Karrar Haider.
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