Update: This feature has begun rolling out to iOS devices, with Android compatibility expected later this year.
Google’s search history can reveal a lot about the user – it shows what users have been looking for online and also gives a sneak peek into their browsing habits, which is something you might not necessarily want to keep a record of.
Considering how prevalent phones are becoming as a user’s primary devices, a lot of these searches now take place on mobile devices. Until now, it has been a little convoluted to delete your recent search history, with the options provided by Google rather limited in scope.
Previously, users could either wipe their entire search history from their Google app, delete entries one by one or set up auto-deletion every 3, 18, or 26 months.
Identifying the obvious gap here, Google has now added the option to “delete last 15 min” with a single tap from a settings screen, with the setting doing exactly as its description suggests.
This new privacy feature to delete partial search history was introduced by Google at the recent Google I/O developers conference and according to Google, it is one of the most demanded features by users.
How to delete the last 15 minutes of search history from your phone?
Google now allows you to delete recent search entries, all you need to do is to follow the below process:
- Go to Google App on your phone
- Tap on your profile picture on the top right to access settings
- On the next page, you’ll see an option “Delete last 15 minutes” and all you need to do is to tap it and the entries from the last 15 days from your search history will be deleted
Additionally, Google will also make it possible to delete the entire search history easily. The new two-tap process to delete search history will be rolled out soon as well. Remember though, once you delete the search history, all the details from Google’s My Activity section will also be deleted.