Manage your privacy with ease by clearing your Google search history. Control what’s saved to your account and learn how to prevent future storage on both your phone and PC.
Whether you’re concerned about your privacy or you looked for something you’re not proud of, erasing your search history is a good idea. Because Google automatically records your search queries from your browser and its sites and saves them to your Google account, it may be useful to look at what it saved and have control over it, especially if you use an Android phone. We look at how to remove your search history on your phone and PC. We also offer advice on how to avoid storing it in the first place.
It only takes a few taps on your phone to delete your recent inquiries or your full search history. If you looked for something in the recent 15 minutes, you can easily remove your inquiries from that time period. Otherwise, proceed to the steps below for a more granular method of removing your recent searches.
Delete your Google Search app’s search history:
- Launch the Google Search application.
- In the upper-right corner, select your profile image.
- Click on Search history.
- To validate your identification, tap the blue Verify symbol at the bottom of the page.
- Confirm your screen lock pattern, password, PIN, or fingerprint, then tap Continue.
- Your whole Search history is displayed at the bottom of the page, with an X underneath each item and day.
- To delete a query or day, click on the X next to it. To erase items from your search history in bulk, hit the blue erase symbol and choose from the options available: Delete today, Delete custom range, Delete all time, or Auto-delete.
- The first three options allow you to erase all searches from the current day, a selected timeframe, or all of them. Auto-delete allows you to eliminate searches that are older than 3, 18, or 36 months, allowing you to get rid of queries that are no longer relevant.
Regardless of which option you select, your search history is completely erased. Your Internet history, however, is not erased. We’re solely discussing your Google search history.
Delete your Google Chrome search history
Clearing your browsing history in Chrome is as simple as a few taps:
- In the upper-right corner, tap the three-dot menu ().
- Select Settings > Privacy and Security.
- Select Clear browsing data.
- Select the data to be removed and the range from which it should be removed, then press Clear data in the lower-right corner.
Getting rid of your computer’s or web browser’s search history
If you don’t have your phone, use your web browser to clear your browsing history:
- Using your preferred web browser, go to Google My Activity.
- To validate your identification, click the blue Verify symbol.
- My Activity records everything you’ve done with Google’s services, including the apps you’ve installed on your Android phone. To limit your search to Google searches, choose Filter by date and product and then click Search.
- Your whole Search history is displayed at the bottom of the page, with an X underneath each item and day. To delete a query or a day, click the X next to it.
- To erase items from your search history in bulk, click the erase symbol and choose one of the options: Delete today, Delete custom range, Delete all time, or Auto-delete. The first three options allow you to erase all searches from the current day, a selected timeframe, or all of them. Auto-delete allows you to erase searches that are older than 3, 18, or 36 months, allowing you to get rid of irrelevant queries.
Only your search history, not your browsing data, is permanently deleted, as it is on your phone. Follow these procedures to delete it from your computer using Chrome:
- In the upper-right corner, click the three-dot menu ().
- To clear browsing data, go to Settings > Privacy and Security > Clear browsing data.
- Select the data to be removed and the range from which it should be removed, then click Clear data.
It’s simple to take control of your search history and protect your info. Whether you’re using an Android phone or a computer, the process is simple and allows you to start from scratch. You can also alter your settings to automatically delete your browsing history after a certain length of time or to cease recording it entirely. Incognito mode also prevents your requests from being recorded.
We hope you found our guide to managing your Google search history helpful! Take control of your privacy by clearing and preventing search history storage. Happy browsing!