Joe Maring / Android authority
One of my favorite things on Google pixel phones is the persistent Google search bar at the bottom of the home screen. It is such a simple feature, but having this constant access to Google, and right next to my thumb, is a huge convenience.
Earlier this month, we pointed out that Google was about to modify this search bar by adding another shortcut – this time, one for Google AI mode. This shortcut now seems to be widely deployed on Pixel phones running Android 16, because my Pixel 9a has just received it the other day.
And I have to be honest: I hate that.
The Google search bar on Pixel phones is a mess
Joe Maring / Android authority
With this last addition, the search bar now fulfills four main functions: perform a regular Google search, use AI mode, start a voice search and launch Google Lens.
Having so many features piled up in a single area is objectively a good use of space. However, as a person who does not use any Of these additional shortcuts, they are not at all useful. I’m sure they are great if you regularly use AI mode, voice research and lens, but if you don’t, they simply give the house screen of congested and disorderly pixels.
In addition, more of these shortcuts on Google add, the less free space there is to press the search bar for what I use: the launch of Google search. It is not that it is impossible to invite a regular Google search, but the AI mode icon is just close to the middle of the bar (at least on the Pixel 9A) that I have already accidentally exploited the AI mode instead of the regular search zone during its pressing quickly with my thumb.
In the Pixel 6 era, the search bar had only the vocal research icon on the far right – and I agreed with that! I could always type anywhere to start typing a search, and for these rare cases where I mean my research aloud, it was good to have the shortcut in vocal mode.
When Google added the Google Lens icon at the time of the Pixel 7, I was slightly bored, even if I was sure that this is where the additional icons would end. However, we are there, a few years later, the icon of the AI mode proving me.
Do you like the new shortcut in AI mode on the Google search bar?
80 votes
Please google, let us change this
Joe Maring / Android authority
Now is this the end of the world? The biggest problem that Google’s pixel phones face? Of course not. However, I think it is fair to argue that this last change in the Pixel search bar is not a good one.
I agree with Google offering users more means to use the search bar, but we should have comments on the additional shortcuts that we would like to see. Hell, Google exactly offers that with its regular search widget, allowing you to modify the shortcut at the end – whether for AI, Google Translate, Google Weather or None. However, for any reason, the search bar on Pixel phones does not have this personalization.
Small problems like this are all the more boring because of their arbitrariness.
Google Pixel phones are supposed to offer the best of Google on an Android phone. Although there are obviously a lot of things that Google is going well, small problems like this are all the more boring because of their arbitrariness. I should be able to control what the Google search bar looks like on my pixel. The tools are there for the regular Android widget, so why can’t I use them on my pixel?
If you have an Android 16 executing pixel and you like AI mode, I am happy for you. But for the rest of us, I can only hope that Google allows us to get rid of this new shortcut as soon as possible.
