You’ll have to wait for a future update to experience unified search
Android 13 finally launched this week, and so far, it seems like a great update. While user-facing new features might seem limited, Android 13 does an excellent job cleaning up last year’s overhaul, all while offering a ton of new and improved security and privacy features. Unfortunately, upgrading beta users have likely noticed one major change no longer on their devices: unified search.
Although rumblings surrounding improvements to the Pixel Launcher’s search bar appeared as early as Beta 1, it took plenty of time for all beta testers to see it on their device. The premise is simple: Google’s enhanced unified search bar can pull information from the web and your phone alike, without having to enter the app drawer first. It’s an obvious enhancement and, in a year filled with smaller changes than usual, one of the best in Android 13.
Unified search is broken on Android 13.
Unfortunately, it seems like that change isn’t sticking around. 9to5Google reports that Pixels upgraded to Android 13 are reverting to an Android 12-style search experience, one that separates on-device searches with web queries. The easiest way to tell whether or not you’re missing out on the new search style is to tap on the bar at the bottom of your home screen. If you see the old-school UI — one that lacks any Material You elements — you no longer have access to unified search. The same goes for any device where the app drawer’s bar is missing the Lens icon.
How these search experiences should work.
Judging by some responses on Reddit, some users are actually happy about this change, noting they’d rather stick with the separate experience than see multiple types of results on one page. Even so, it’s nothing more than a mistake on Google’s part. The company told 9to5Google a fix is incoming in an upcoming release, though it’s unclear whether that means an all-new patch or a server-side solution. If you’re feeling impatient, Esper.io’s Mishaal Rahman has an ADB command for you. Although this was initially used during the beta days, it’ll still work for stable Android 13 devices. Just push the command, then force close the Pixel launcher for the changes to activate.
cmd device_config put launcher enable_one_search trueIn my experience, unified search has been pretty buggy throughout beta, constantly disappearing and reappearing on my own Pixel devices between new software drops. Hopefully, Google can get this tool a little more consistent with its upcoming bug fixes. After all, search is one of the main ways many of us interact with our phones. The last thing we need is an unpredictable UI every time we tap on the bar.
