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Your Android device retains your Google searches, enabling various sites and services to use that data to personalize ads and other types of recommendations.
For some of us, that level of personalization makes using the platform easier. However, in this modern era, with companies leveraging such information to create a highly personalized picture of you and your web usage, one could consider this practice an invasion of privacy. This can be especially problematic if you accidentally search for the wrong thing, only to be inundated with ads that fall under the category of, “Why am I seeing this?“
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I’ve witnessed people’s eyes go wide when an ad pops up on their phones that they either shouldn’t see — or didn’t want to see. For those who value privacy, it is possible to reclaim control over how much of a browser’s search history is saved and when it’s deleted.
I’m going to walk you through two processes:
- Manually deleting that search cache.
- Configuring Android to auto-delete saved data.
How to manually clear the Google search cache
What you’ll need: To do this, you’ll need an Android device that is connected to your Google account. I’ll first be demonstrating on a Pixel 6 Pro running Android 14 (with updated instructions afterward for more recent software versions).
This first process works similarly across most Android releases. If, however, you find that the instructions don’t apply to your device, it may take some research to discover how it’s done on an older version of Android. I will also describe a method of clearing the Google search cache that should work on most devices.
Let’s get to work.
From your Android App Drawer, open the Google app. In the resulting window, tap your profile image at the top-right corner.
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The Google app running on a Pixel 6 Pro.
Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET
From the resulting menu, tap Search history.
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The Google app menu makes it easy to quickly delete the last 15 minutes of your search history.
Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET
Before you can gain access to the Delete drop-down, you have to verify it’s you. To do that, tap the Verify button and you’ll be prompted for either your PIN, pattern, password, fingerprint, or face scan (depending on how you have Android configured for the unlocking process).
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After a successful verification, you should then see a Delete drop-down.
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Once you’ve verified it’s you, the Delete drop-down will become available. Select the time frame for which you want to delete (Delete Today, “Delete custom range,” “Delete all time,” or “Auto-delete.”) and Android will empty the cache for that specified range. You will not be prompted to OK the deletion; it will just happen. Once deleted, that cache is gone.
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From this same window, you can go through your history and delete specific searches.
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You must first verify it’s you before continuing.
Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET
An alternative method
As I mentioned, here’s how the same thing is achieved on a Pixel running on more recent Android software.
1. Open Settings > Apps
Pull down the Notification Shade twice and click the gear icon in the bottom-right corner. Once you’ve done that, locate and tap Apps within Settings.
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2. Locate the Google app
Tap “See all X apps” (where X is the number of apps you have installed). On the resulting page, scroll down until you find the entry labeled, Google. Tap that entry.
3. Clear the cache
On the resulting page, tap “Storage & cache” and then tap “Clear cache.” That will clear the search cache from your device.
You can also clear the storage if your device is getting full.
Sreenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET
Auto-deletion setup
If you prefer to have things done automagically, Google has made it possible to set the cache to be auto-deleted. To do this, go to the Google app, tap your profile image, and tap Settings from the drop-down. In the resulting window, tap “Search history,” and then tap Auto-delete. In the resulting window, tap to enable “Auto-delete activity older than” and then, from the drop-down, select the date range to be deleted.
Enable auto-delete so you don’t have to worry about manually taking care of the process.
Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET
You can choose from three, 18, or 36 months. Once you’ve made your selection, tap Next and then tap Confirm to finish the setup.
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And that’s all there is to deleting your Google search cache (either manually or automatically). If you’re concerned about your online privacy, consider this a must-do. And remember: Since you can only set auto-delete for a minimum of three months, you might want to regularly go back to the screen and manually delete your cache (to keep your Android device from saving cached items that are not more than three months old).
