Google just changed the search bar on my Pixel home screen, and I hate it

One of my favorite things about Google’s Pixel phones is the persistent Google Search bar at the bottom of the home screen. It’s such a simple feature, but having that constant access to Google, and right by my thumb, is a huge convenience.

Earlier this month, we reported that Google was getting ready to change that search bar by adding yet another shortcut to it — this time, one for Google AI Mode. That shortcut now appears to be widely rolling out to Pixel phones running Android 16, as my Pixel 9a just received it the other day.

And I’ve got to be honest: I hate it.

With this latest addition, the search bar now serves four main functions: performing a regular Google Search, using AI Mode, starting a voice search, and launching Google Lens.

Having so much functionality crammed into a single area is, objectively, a good use of space. However, as someone who doesn’t use any of those extra shortcuts, they aren’t helpful at all. I’m sure they’re great if you regularly use AI Mode, voice search, and Lens, but if you don’t, they just make the Pixel home screen look cluttered and messy.

Further, the more of these shortcuts Google adds, the less free space there is to tap the search bar for what I use it for: launching Google Search. It’s not that it’s impossible to prompt a regular Google Search, but the AI Mode icon is just close enough to the middle of the bar (at least on the Pixel 9a) that I’ve already accidentally tapped AI Mode instead of the regular search area when quickly tapping it with my thumb.

In the Pixel 6 era, the search bar only had the voice search icon at the far right — and I was OK with that! I could still tap just about anywhere to start typing a search, and for those rare instances when I want to say my search aloud, it was nice having the voice mode shortcut.

When Google added the Google Lens icon around the time of the Pixel 7, I was slightly annoyed, though I thought for sure that’s where the additional icons would end. Yet here we are, a couple of years later, with the AI Mode icon proving me wrong.

Now, is this the end of the world? The biggest issue facing Google’s Pixel phones? Of course not. Still, I think it’s fair to argue that this latest change to the Pixel search bar isn’t a good one.

I’m fine with Google offering users more ways to utilize the search bar, but we should have some input on what additional shortcuts we’d like to see. Hell, Google offers exactly that with its regular Search widget, allowing you to change the shortcut at the end of it — whether it’s one for AI Mode, Google Translate, Google Weather, or none at all. Yet, for whatever reason, the Search bar on Pixel phones lacks that customization.

Google’s Pixel phones are supposed to offer the best of Google on an Android phone. While there’s obviously a lot that Google gets right, little issues like this are all the more annoying because of how arbitrary they are. I should be able to control what the Google Search bar on my Pixel looks like. The tools are there for the regular Android widget, so why can’t I use them on my Pixel?

If you have a Pixel running Android 16 and you like AI Mode, I am happy for you. But for the rest of us, I can only hope Google lets us get rid of this new shortcut sooner rather than later.