the change in Europe which now allows you to use another search engine on your Pixel

The consequences of the new DMA, or Digital Markets Act, are already being felt in the technology sector. Large companies, considered “gatekeepers” by the European Union, are required to apply certain changes to their products to encourage competition and better protect user data. We’ve already seen the changes Google is making due to the new European law, but that’s just the beginning.

Google is one of the main targets of the new law, due to its dominant position on the Internet and thanks to its web search engine, on which dozens of different products, including Android, depend. And the majority of mobile phones sold in the EU They have the Google search engine by default.

Now changing this will be easier than ever, because the mobile phone itself will notify us. A new function will allow us to change the web search engine used by default on Pixel phones, even after configuring it as Google.

Removing Google on Pixels will be easy

In fact, anyone who has purchased a new mobile phone in recent years knows that during the setup process, the a screen where you can choose the default search engine. In addition to Google, alternatives such as Bing, DuckDuckGo or Ecosia usually appear.

However, once we choose the default search engine, we have no way to change it. From then on, the search bar will always display the icon of the search engine we have chosen; and in most cases it will be Google.

NOW, Google will send us a notification on our mobile, which will remind us that we can change the default search engine; By clicking on the notification, you will be redirected to a new settings section, which consists of the same search engine selection screen that we had already seen when we first turned on the mobile.

Additionally, we can access this screen simply access settings from home screen, by holding down in an empty area. In the “Search Preferences” section, a new section will appear that will allow us to choose the search engine.

These changes will apply only to mobile phones located in the European Union, this is where companies need to follow the DMA. Furthermore, everything indicates that the notification arrives little by littleso there are still many users who have not received it and do not have the new section in the home screen settings.