is there still no way to remove the Google search bar from the Pixel home screen?
Nova launcher is getting more and more incompatible with my Google Pixel 8 and my Google Pixel 6. The Google search bar on the home screen was the reason I started using a third party launcher. have they fixed that yet?
They likely never will, because as far as Google is concerned that's a feature instead of a bug. You're at their mercy as long as you're using their launcher. Personally, I switched to Niagara Launcher for this exact reason.
Yes, just. It takes around 10-15 minutes and zero technical knowledge. As long as you can plug something into a USB port, read a website, and click a couple of buttons on the website, you can install Graphene OS.
Nova launcher has been great the entire time that I've owned an Android. And then the other day I read that they're selling our information. Like what the fuck man? You can't just buy a product any more without it literally spying on you. We used to call this stuff spyware, and had programs to remove it from our computers. Now it's just called business as usual. Anyways, I stopped using Nova launcher and I like my phone less because of it.
You can make it use a different search engine, but that's about it. Oh, and the update that made it possible also brought a google-only circle to search gesture to older Pixels - if you switch search provider, that gesture won't be available. Edit: it worked like that on release, but apparently has been fixed since. Now circle to search works (using Google) no matter what search provider you use for the search bar.
If Microsoft got busted for giving Internet Explorer special APIs not available to other programs (which made it the best browser on Windows because of its tight integration that could not be replicated by the competition), then what business does Google have doing pretty much the same thing here?
It doesn't appear like there's any way for other search providers to hijack your nav pill and randomly pop up their own UI when you hold it, so why should Google?
As someone who has used a Samsung for the last 10 years, it was shocking to see this when I purchased and setup 2 pixel 8a's that I got for my parents yesterday (couldnt turn down the offer for 2 free phones and cutting $100 a month off their old bill by switching to google fi). It was literally one of the things I kept looking at, and going there has to be a way to remove this, but I also didn't have much time to look into it either. Good to know so I don't have to look back into it. What a terrible UI option...
I just set up a new Samsung Galaxy A54 (?) for my mom and it automatically installed facebook and tiktok with no way of stopping the install. At least nowadays you can uninstall that crap again afterwards without adb.
Unfortunately, the only way seems to be to use another launcher. I've been using the non-free Smart Launcher, which meets my needs well and has a decent level of features and customization. I also quite like Kvaesisto which has a highly customizable and powerful search (FOSS).
I don't think that there is a major Pixel/AOSP based launcher in development rn, but someone else may know of one. Lawnchair is ancient history, NeoLauncer is dead.
Turns out that Lawnchair is back in active development, but had not yet had a new stable release. You may want to check it out if you don't mind relying on a beta version.