8 tips and tricks to squeeze Google Discover

Google Discover is a current feed on a large number of Android phones in Europe, which was recently also available on Samsung mobiles with One UI 3.1. This feed can be found in the left panel on phones that have it and gives us access to news that may be of interest to us. It is a tool that continues to generate doubts, as many do not see it as something useful.

Google Discover can be a good tool on Android, although for this we need to know more about its use. Next, we leave you with some tips and tricks that will allow us to better use this feed on our Android phones.

How to enable or disable Google Discover on Android

If you want to stop using Google Discover on your phone, or just want to start using it, here are the steps to turn it on or off.

1. Select the topics and media that interest you

When you use Google Discover for the first time, you will see that there is a lots of news that don’t interest you, because they deal with topics that you don’t usually read or that don’t bring you anything. It can also happen with media, newspaper news, or media that you don’t want to read all the time. It is important that the Google feed knows this, so that it allows us to disseminate information on these topics. This is something that is done in a simple way:

1. Access the file for this news.
2. Click on the icon with the three vertical dots.
3. In this menu, select the option “I am not interested …”.
4. Or if you are not interested in the media, click on “I am not interested in the news from …”.
5. Repeat the process with those media or topics that don’t interest you.

This will allow you to tailor Google Discover to your tastes, which will stop showing you news on those topics or the media in question.

2. Reduce data usage from Google Discover

Google Discover runs in the background on our Android phone and updates frequently. Every time we open this thread we find new news, with the consequent consumption of mobile data. The good news is that there is a way to reduce this data consumption, resulting in less frequent updating. For users with limited rates or when you are about to hit your maximum rate, this can be a bit useful.

1. Abre Discover.
2. Click on your profile picture at the top.
3. Go to Settings.
4. Go to the general.
5. Look for the Data Saver option.
6. Activate this option.

How to activate Discover on Samsung mobiles with One UI 3.1

We show you how to use Google Discover in the new Samsung phones that use the One UI 3.1 interface of the Galaxy S21.

3. Indicate the news you like

Last fall, a new way to like the news you see on Discover was introduced with a heart icon. As if it were a social network, just click on the heart icon to indicate that you like this news. This type of action can be used for the feed to show you more news of this type, on that topic or medium, so that you help it better adapt to your preferences at all times.

4. Manage notifications

Google Discover issues notifications on Android, for certain specific situations, such as major weather changes, weather forecast, reminders of sporting events (live matches) or topics of interest. As with any app on Android, we don’t want it to emit too many notifications, which makes it annoying. It is advisable to review the notifications that interest us, in order to have better management. The steps to follow are:

1. Open Discover on Android.
2. Tap your profile picture.
3. Go to settings.
4. Go to the Notifications section.
5. Turn off any notifications you don’t want to see.

5. Manage your interests

And Google Discover we usually tag the topics or media we like and those we don’t like. Although these interests are not always true, because there are times when there are topics that interest us that for some reason do not come out. In the app we can manage these interests, in case there are some that we want to activate or others that we want to deactivate. Here are the steps:

1. Abre Discover.
2. Click on your profile picture at the top right.
3. Go to Settings.
4. Access areas of interest.
5. Enter your interests.
6. In the topics section, choose the topics you want or don’t want to follow.
7. It goes down to “Depending on your activity”.
8. Mark the topics that interest you and those that do not interest you using the buttons.

6. Content of the report

Google Discover is no stranger to false or inappropriate information, a problem that Google itself is helping users. You may at any time report information which is not true or which displays false or undisputed information, as well as inciting hatred, for example. When you report something, Google will analyze that news and it can be removed from this feed. The steps to follow are:

1. Abre Discover.
2. Access false or inappropriate information.
3. Click on the three vertical dots.
4. Click Report Content.
5. Choose the reason for reporting this content.
6. Click on the report.

7. Weather information

There is a small box with weather information on Google Discover, which displays the weather at your current location. We may want to make a change in this window, like the unit in which the temperature is displayed or add this panel to the home screen, for example. This is something we can do in a simple way:

1. Abre Discover.
2. Click on the weather information window.
3. Wait for it to open in the new window.
4. Click on the three vertical dots.
5. Change the units or add this window to the mobile home screen.

8. Disable Google Discover

Many users on Android doesn’t consider Discover to be really useful, they therefore prefer not to activate it on their mobile. If this is your case, you can deactivate this feed on your phone at any time. The steps for this are simple and whenever you want you can activate it again. Here are the steps:

1. Abre Discover.
2. Tap your profile picture.
3. Go to settings.
4. Click General.
5. Go to the option called Discover.
6. Turn off the switch to turn off this flow.