Change the Default Search Engine on Android

By Bill Hartzer · Updated 17 September 2026

The short answer depends on which search box

If you mean the browser, open Chrome, tap the ⋮ menu, tap Settings, tap Search engine, and select one. If you mean the Google search bar sitting on your home screen, there is no equivalent setting — that bar belongs to the Google app, it only searches with Google, and the fix is to replace the widget rather than to configure it.

Checked against Google's own Chrome and Android help pages in September 2026. Google publishes the Chrome steps without tying them to an Android release, so no version is claimed here. Manufacturer software changes the wording of the system screens more than the version number does: Samsung's One UI, Xiaomi's HyperOS and others rename and re-nest the same options, and Google's own pages give "Default apps or Choose default apps" as alternative labels for the same screen.

Open Chrome.
Tap the ⋮ icon at the top right of the toolbar.
Tap Settings.
Tap Search engine, in the Basics group near the top.
Tap the engine you want from the radio-button list. Chrome applies it at once and returns you to the previous screen.
Back out to the browser. The next thing typed in the address bar, and the search box on Chrome's new-tab page, both go to the new engine.

The list you are offered is region-dependent, and Chrome adds engines you have recently searched from as further options on the same screen. Adding an engine by hand is a different matter: Google documents the "Manage search engines and site search" screen, with its name, shortcut and "URL with %s in place of query" fields, only on the Computer tab of that help page. The Android and iPhone tabs document the picker and the recently-visited additions and nothing else, so a manual add on Android is not something Google's documentation supports.

The Google app and the home-screen search bar

This is the part that defeats people, and the answer is unsatisfying: you cannot point the Google app at another engine. The Google app is Google Search — the search bar it draws, the widget it installs on the home screen, and the results it returns are one product, and no setting inside it swaps the engine underneath. Searching from that bar bypasses your Chrome preference completely, which is why a person who carefully switched Chrome to DuckDuckGo still watches Google results appear all day.

What you can do is remove the entry point. Long-press the Google search bar on the home screen and drag it to Remove (on many launchers the bar is part of the launcher's default layout and removing it requires the launcher's own home-screen settings, or a different launcher entirely). Then add a widget belonging to the engine you prefer: DuckDuckGo, Bing, Ecosia, Brave and several others ship a home-screen search widget that looks and behaves much like Google's and hands queries to their own app.

On some devices the Google app can also be disabled outright from Settings → Apps; whether it can be uninstalled or only disabled depends on how the manufacturer shipped it.

The assistant is a third, separate system

Long-pressing the power button, or saying the wake phrase, invokes whatever is registered as the device's digital assistant. Google notes that the power-button behavior varies by device and is itself a setting, under Settings → System → Gestures → Press & hold power button. That is neither Chrome's setting nor the Google app's, and on recent Android it is a genuinely open slot. Google documents Settings → Apps → Default apps → Digital assistant app → Default digital assistant app, then a choice of any installed app that has declared itself capable of the role, or None; "Google" is the single entry covering both Google Assistant and Gemini. Some devices label the screen Choose default apps instead, which Google gives as an alternative wording rather than as a Samsung-only name.

Assistant apps from AI search companies can register there, so a phone can be configured with Chrome searching one engine, a home-screen widget searching a second, and a long-press assistant answering from a third. That is confusing, but it is not a fault; Android treats these as three unrelated capabilities. If your reason for switching is that you would rather one company did not receive your questions, all three slots have to be dealt with, and the assistant is the one people forget.

Browsers other than Chrome

Every Android browser keeps its own default, stored in its own app data. Firefox for Android is not reached through the main menu at all in Mozilla's documentation: tap the search engine icon in the address bar, tap Search settings at the foot of the panel that opens, tap Default search engine, and choose. The same screen carries Add search engine, which takes a name and a Search string URL with %s standing in for the query. Brave, Opera and Vivaldi each expose a comparable option in their own settings; Microsoft's mobile FAQ gives two labels for Edge across its Android and iOS tabs — Settings → General → Default search engine and Settings → Advanced settings → Search engine → Others — without its platform tabs resolving reliably to automated retrieval, so which belongs to Android is unconfirmed; and Samsung Internet — preinstalled on Galaxy devices and the second most used browser on Android by some measurements — carries its own default search engine setting inside its own settings screen, entirely independent of Chrome's. Samsung's own support page for the browser goes no further than saying that Tools (the three-dot menu) → Settings is where the address bar search engine is adjusted, so the rows below that are not vendor-documented.

Which of them opens links tapped in other apps is a separate system setting, and Google documents it as Settings → Apps → under "General", Default apps or Choose default apps → Browser app. Changing the default browser does not change any engine; it changes which app receives the link, and that app then applies whatever engine it is configured with.

What the EU choice screens changed

In the European Economic Area, users of new Android devices and of Chrome are shown a choice screen listing search engines and asked to pick one, instead of arriving at a preset default. These screens follow from the Digital Markets Act, which took effect for designated gatekeepers in March 2024. The engines shown are those with meaningful usage in that country, and the order is randomised so that no position is a paid advantage.

This replaced an earlier arrangement. From 2020 to 2021, Android in Europe carried a choice screen whose slots were sold at auction — engines bid for inclusion, which favored those able to pay and drew sustained criticism from the smaller engines it was supposed to help. Google ended the auction model in 2021 and moved to a free listing before the DMA screens arrived.

Two limits are worth being clear about. The choice screen sets a browser default; it does not change what the Google app does, because the Google app is not a browser and is not a default that the screen offers. And the screens are geographic — a device set up outside the EEA does not see them, and no setting turns them on.

If the setting will not hold

Android is more permissive than iOS about what one app can do to another's experience, so this deserves checking rather than dismissing.

Start with the boring cause: the query went into a different search box than the one you configured. Between Chrome, the Google widget, the assistant, a browser preinstalled by the manufacturer and any in-app browser used by social apps, a phone has five or six places to type a search, and each answers to a different setting. Establish which one produced the unexpected results before troubleshooting anything.

Next, look for a controlling extension or policy. Chrome on Android does not support extensions, so a locked dropdown there usually means enterprise management — a work profile, or a device managed by an employer, in which case Settings → Accounts or the badge on your Chrome profile will say so.

Genuine hijacking on Android generally arrives as an installed app rather than as a modified browser: a "battery saver", a keyboard, a QR scanner or a free VPN that sets itself as the default browser or assistant, or that overlays its own search. Review Settings → Apps → Default apps to see what currently holds each role, uninstall anything you did not deliberately choose, and confirm Play Protect is enabled. Sideloaded apps from outside Google Play carry most of this risk.

Then the question of whose results you want

Android's engine lists usually contain five or six names, and they represent fewer than five or six independent indexes. Google and Bing crawl and rank their own. Yandex does, in its own market. Everything else in a typical Android list is drawing on one of those: DuckDuckGo's web results come substantially from Bing with its own privacy handling layered on, and Ecosia has drawn on partner indexes while directing profits to tree planting.

The engines that operate independent crawlers at smaller scale — Mojeek, Brave Search, Marginalia — rarely appear preinstalled, which is exactly why Chrome's ability to add an engine by query URL matters more on Android than the built-in list does. A switch that changes the logo but keeps the index gives you different data handling, not different results. Both are worth having; knowing which one you got is worth more.

Two figures put the setting in proportion. The Department of Justice's closing argument demonstrative in United States v. Google LLC, filed in 2024, attributed 19.4 percent of all US general search queries in 2020 to Google's Android manufacturer and carrier agreements, within roughly 50 percent covered by its default contracts as a whole — 2020 data presented in 2024, in a case on appeal. And the European Commission staff working document accompanying its 2026 review of the Digital Markets Act found that the choice screens have so far moved browsers rather than engines: Firefox reported its daily active users doubling on iOS in Germany and France and Aloha a 250 percent rise in new users, while the Commission found no meaningful uptake of the Article 6(11) obligation requiring Google to license search data to rival engines. The browser gains are self-reported by the vendors, and the Commission stresses that it remains early in the Act's implementation.

Frequently asked questions

How do I change the search engine in the Google search bar on my Android home screen?

You cannot. That bar is the Google app, and the Google app searches only with Google — there is no engine setting inside it. The workable approach is to remove or hide the widget through your launcher and add a search widget from another engine's app, such as DuckDuckGo, Bing, Ecosia or Brave, which behaves the same way.

Does changing Chrome's search engine on Android change anything else on the phone?

No. It affects Chrome's address bar and Chrome's new-tab search box, nothing more. The Google app, the home-screen widget, the digital assistant, Samsung Internet and any in-app browser used inside social apps all keep separate settings. That separation is the single biggest source of confusion about search defaults on Android.

How do I change the assistant that answers when I long-press the power button?

Go to Settings → Apps → Default apps → Digital assistant app → Default digital assistant app, and select from the installed apps that can fill that role, or None. Google gives Choose default apps as an alternative label for that screen on some devices. This is independent of both Chrome and the Google app, so a phone can end up using three different search providers depending on how the query was started.

Can I add a search engine that Chrome for Android does not list?

Not according to Google. The "Manage search engines and site search" screen that accepts a name, a shortcut and a "URL with %s in place of query" is documented only for Chrome on a computer. On Android, Google's help page describes the picker and says engines you have recently searched from are added as options automatically, which is a different mechanism and does not cover an engine you have never visited. Firefox for Android does document a manual Add search engine control, so a self-hosted instance is reachable there. Checked September 2026.

Why does Android in Europe ask me to choose a search engine?

Because of the Digital Markets Act, which requires designated gatekeepers to offer choice rather than preset defaults. Since March 2024 new Android devices and Chrome in the European Economic Area show a randomised list of engines popular in that country. It sets a browser default and does not alter what the Google app does.

Why did my Android search engine change without me changing it?

Usually because a recently installed app claimed a default role — a free VPN, cleaner, keyboard or scanner that registers itself as browser or assistant. Check Settings → Apps → Default apps to see what holds each role, uninstall anything unfamiliar, and keep Play Protect on. Enterprise-managed and work-profile devices can also have the value set by policy.

Does uninstalling the Google app stop Google searches on Android?

It removes one entry point, not all of them. Chrome keeps its own engine setting, the assistant keeps its own, and manufacturer software may include another search surface. On many devices the Google app can only be disabled rather than uninstalled. Dealing with each search surface separately is the only reliable approach.

How to change the default search engine on Android