I’ve been hunting for a birthday present for my husband and have a suspicion that he peeks at my search history on my phone. Is there a way to delete a small search history time window, like 15 minutes? I use the Google search app, if that matters.
Search history can be incredibly helpful if you need to check something you researched earlier in the day, a few days ago, or even a month or two in the past. But in the same way, there are some significant privacy implications for this archive too, and it’s not unusual for people to want to delete their search history for the previous day, week, or all time. Google has support for all of this, partially because of the GDPR privacy laws, and partially because it’s the right thing to do with a company that has a habit of saving every single thing we do online for years.
The good news is that “Delete Last 15 Minutes” is a specific shortcut and easy to do if you know where to look. Well, sort of. It’s implemented in the iPhone / iOS version of Google Search, but the Android version is not quite there, though rumor is that it’s coming very soon. Even without that specific shortcut, though, it’s easy to delete a day’s worth of searches from within the Google app too on Android or iPhone. Let’s have a look…
GOOGLE SEARCH APP AND SEARCH HISTORY
Let’s say you’re ready to do a search and you jump into the Google app on your Android phone. Here’s what you’ll see:
Tap on the search box and you can search away, easy. When you’re done with your searches, tap on your profile icon (the circle on the top right) and you’ll get to a very useful menu of options:
Notice the second entry: “Search history“. Since this version of the Google search app for Android doesn’t yet have that 15-minute feature (I’ll show you what I mean in a moment) it’s not shown here. Instead, tap on “Search history”…
There are two things worth exploring in this information view, but first let it sink in that every search you do is saved forever by Google unless you change things. Did you realize that? Probably not. Most people don’t.
DELETING YOUR GOOGLE SEARCH HISTORY
Which leads to the obvious question: How do you delete your search history from the Google app on your smartphone? In this version of the Google app, simply tap on the tiny “Delete” button on the right side. A menu appears:
As you can see, the options are to Delete today, Delete custom range, Delete all time and Auto-delete. You can’t just delete 15 minutes (yet) so “Delete today” is your option. Done.
Back up a bit, though, choose “Auto-delete” instead and you’ll be able to adjust how long Google archives your searches:
I suggest 3 months; do you really need to know what you searched a year ago? Two years ago?
MEANWHILE, ON THE IPHONE
Interestingly, the Google search app on the iPhone is a bit ahead in terms of features and options, so it already has the “Delete last 15 minutes” option. Here’s what it looks like, and will look like on the Android version of the app very soon:
See it right in the middle? “Delete last 15 min“. Handy and darn useful. And now you know.
Pro Tip: I’ve been writing about Android since the beginning. Please check out my extensive Android help area while you’re visiting for lots more useful tutorials and guides! Thanks.