As a data-driven company, Google gathers user information to help them build better products and services. This can be seen as a double-edged sword since creating a custom-made experience is challenging without giving up personal data. Even the best Android phones on the market suffer the same fate because they’re powered by Google Play Services.
Google gives you control over your search history and account data settings using the helpful My Activity feature. One significant addition is automatically deleting your Google search history after a certain number of months by default. Before this, you could have years of search history from old devices saved on your account without knowing it. Read on to learn all you need to know about the My Activity feature.
How to access My Activity from the Google app
There are various ways to find the My Activity feature on Android, and finding those settings is easy regardless of your chosen method. You can quickly get to your Google account main page by doing the following:
- Open the Google app, and then tap your profile icon in the upper-right corner.
- Under your selected account, tap the Manage your Google Account button. In newer versions of the Google app, the Manage your Google Account button is called Google Account.
- Tap the Data & privacy tab at the top of the screen.
- Scroll down to the History settings section and tap the My Activity button.
On Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy smartphones, go to Settings > Google > Manage your Google Account to find the main settings page for your Google account. This location may differ based on the device manufacturer or Android version, so you might have to do a quick search to find it.
How to access My Activity from a web browser
You can also open the My Activity page in your favorite web browser. This can be done on a computer via the desktop version, or you can use your smartphone and add an icon shortcut to your homescreen for easy access.
- Visit the My Activity main page in your favorite web browser.
- Open your browser settings (the three-dot menu in most cases), and then tap Add to Home screen to create a shortcut. This shortcut feature works with Google Chrome and other supported web browsers.
- Tap Add.
- Tap the Add to Home screen button to place the icon on your homescreen. Alternatively, long-press the shortcut icon and drop it anywhere you want on your homescreen.
If you use Google Assistant, say or type “my activity” to jump to the main My Activity page in your web browser. Then, add the shortcut to your homescreen for easy access.
How to use My Activity to manage your Google account history
Now that you can access the My Activity feature on your device, it’s time to manage your Google account history settings. The main Activity controls page consists of three activity controls: Web & App Activity, Location History, and YouTube History. Go through them individually and select the best preferences for your needs. We break down each of the Activity page controls for you in the sections below:
Web & App Activity
The Web & App Activity section shows the settings relating to your web and app search history. Google recommends leaving this setting enabled to enhance your overall user experience. Doing so can give you faster search results and improve recommendations for many Google services. Saving your account history can also be helpful in certain situations. For example, imagine doing in-depth research about a specific topic. You can quickly bring up your search history if you want to find it again.
Many third-party apps rely on Google Play Services to function, giving them the potential to track you in most scenarios. It’s not just your web searches. Your actions within these apps can be tracked to an extent. This is typically done to serve you with relevant ads or to improve the user experience of an app. It’s not meant to be an intrusion of your personal information. This app data is only saved to your account history if you enable the optional setting for tracking activity within apps.
If the feature is enabled, and you want to disable it to increase the privacy of your Google account, do the following:
- Tap the Turn off button to get started.
- Read through the description as needed, then scroll down.
- Press the Pause button, then the setting will be disabled.
- Tap Delete old activity, then select All time. This removes your previous search history from your Google account.
- Select the products you want to wipe the activity history, and then select Next.
- Tap Delete. The selected services will have their activity history removed from your Google account.
- Press Got it to finish.
You can also manage the saved history data for each Google service or app by tapping its icon under the See and delete activity section. You can do this for each one manually, giving you even more control over apps and services. This can be helpful if you want only a few specific items to be saved to your account, but not everything.
Every Activity controls section has specific settings and auto-delete frequency options. You can either keep everything off indefinitely or select a few helpful settings. It’s recommended to choose every three months as the auto-delete frequency.
Location History
Since location history tracking is a sensitive topic, you might hesitate to use this feature. You have to manually turn on the location tracking setting for your account. Still, enabling it has advantages in some situations. For example, you can get recommendations of places to explore based on your travel location history. If you enjoy finding new shops or restaurants, this could be helpful at home or during your travels.
Enabling location history gives you access to Google Maps Timeline, where you’ll see the routes you took during your travels. You can go back to your timeline later and check where you were on a given day, including an estimated time when you visited a location. This isn’t something you need to enable on your account, but it’s a nice extra feature to help you visualize when and where you have been.
To enable the location history feature for your Google account, do the following:
- Under the Location History section, tap the Turn on button.
- Read through the description, then scroll down.
- Tap the Turn on button to enable the feature for your Google account.
- Tap Got it to finish up here.
YouTube History
The YouTube History setting saves a record of the videos you viewed and keeps track of what you’re searching for. This improves your video recommendations and allows you to resume videos where you left off. As with any feature that offers a personalized experience, it needs your user data to make it all work together. You can use YouTube with this setting disabled, but you won’t have access to these extra features.
If you value your privacy over these YouTube features, disable them by doing the following:
- Under the YouTube History section, tap the Turn off button.
- Read through the description, then scroll down if needed.
- Tap the Pause button to disable the YouTube History setting on your Google account.
- Tap Delete old activity.
- Select All time.
- Look over the preview of what will be removed, and then tap the Delete button to delete your YouTube search history.
- Press Got it to return to the main page.
My Activity puts you in control of your Google account search history
The My Activity feature lets you see and manage everything you’ve shared with Google in an easy-to-use dashboard. It’s a welcomed addition that helps you decide how much of your data you want Google to access from your account. Google will always need to know at least a few things about you for a better user experience when using their apps and services. However, you’re in control of how much personal information they can keep tabs on from here on out.
If you’re looking to further reduce the amount of data you share with Google, check out the best ways to enhance your privacy on any Android phone. Reducing Google’s footprint on your device can ease your mind a bit, especially when combined with the My Activity feature.
