How to Change the Search Engine for Search Bar on Android

In this guide, we will show you the steps to change the search engine for the search bar on your Android device. Many Android phones have a search bar at the bottom of the home screen and at the top of the app drawer. And there’s no brownie points in guessing which search engine it uses [yes, it’s the one from the Silicon Valley giant]. So can’t we change it? You get this option only once- while setting up your device in the beginning.

Google Search in Search Bar on Home Screen

Moreover, even this option is only available in India and EU regions, not because Google has a change of heart, but because it has to comply with those regions’ regulations. And for the rest of the world? Well, they are left with no choice whatsoever. Well, even in the regions that do have this option, they cannot change it at a later stage until and unless they do a factory reset, which will re-invoke the setup screen.

Google Search in Search Bar on App Drawer

This isn’t the most viable or feasible way of getting this job done. So what else can be done? Well, there does exist a nifty workaround [that doesn’t involve root] using which you can change the search engine for the search bar on your Android device. So, without further ado, let’s show you this could be carried out.

How to Change the Search Engine for the Search Bar on Android

1. First off, download and extract Android SDK Platform Tools on your PC.
2. Now enable USB Debugging on your device and connect it to PC via USB.
3. Then open Command Prompt inside the platform-tools folder and type in adb shell settings delete secure selected_search_engine
4. You’ll get the output “Deleted 1 rows” which signifies it has deleted Google as the search engine from the search bar.
5. Now, restart your device and wait for the “Choose your search engine“ notification to arrive [it might take a few minutes].
6. Once it appears, tap Choose App and select the desired search engine from the list.
7. If your search engine is not in this list [let’s say DuckDuckGo], then you’ll first have to add it to the Database.
8. For that, copy the app package name of that search engine from the next section and input it in the below commands: adb shell settings put secure selected_search_engine_aga adb shell settings put secure selected_search_engine
9. Replace the accordingly from the above command. Finally, restart your device. That’s it.

App Package Names of Search Engine

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