Google’s letting us remove At a Glance on Pixels, but why stop there?

Google’s Pixel Launcher is better than I give it credit for, but it isn’t without its shortcomings. As a Pixel 8 user, I encounter the home screen’s quirks every day, but even so, its limitations can be leveraged to build a highly functional, productivity-first home screen environment. That said, it rather forces the user to adopt this ideology. It’s no wonder then that plenty of users leap for other Android launchers offering fresher features and extensive customization options.

Fortunately, it appears that Google is addressing this issue. According to evidence we uncovered in Android Canary, the Pixel Launcher will soon give users the option to hide its At a Glance widget completely from the home screen. The widget, positioned right at the top of the screen, is helpful in certain instances. It serves context-relevant information, including weather forecasts, flight details, and traffic information via Maps for commuters. Not everyone values this information, though, and since At a Glance is permanent, it robs these users of real estate on their home screens.

Google giving users the option to hide this widget entirely is terrific news. It’s an option I’ve always wanted to see Google offer, and many readers share this sentiment as well. However, the road to Pixel Launcher becoming a launcher that supports rather than restricts users is long and winding. There’s another permanent UI element on that Google should give us control of next, and that is the search bar.

The search bar carves itself a substantial portion of Pixel Launcher’s home screen. Sitting right at the bottom of the screen in the area closest to users’ thumbs, it’s meant to be a jump point to almost every item on one’s phone and beyond. Users can search the web and Google’s trending topics, documents, apps, and contacts on their devices, and even access a handful of settings. It also includes a built-in shortcut to AI Mode, Google’s new Gemini-powered search effort that spits out richer, more contextually relevant information based on queries.

Pixel Launcher’s search bar is far more potent in its current form than it was when I keenly scrutinized it several months ago. However, I’m still not convinced that this warrants its permanent placement on a prime piece of screen real estate.

Google has realized that users would like to tweak elements on the Pixel Launcher, especially the At a Glance widget. But it doesn’t seem to realize that we’d quite like the same for the search bar. Currently, users must shoehorn this element into their home screen workflow rather than adjusting their home screens to best suit their needs. It’s an arbitrary limitation you’ll see across almost every Google product.

Google cannot argue that this is something its users don’t want, either. I’ve reviewed numerous questions from Pixel owners on Reddit and other forums, asking others if the Pixel Launcher search bar is removable. There’s an apparent demand for more control from those who want to make their Pixel phones their own.

At the very least, I should be able to declutter the search bar itself. What if I don’t want the Lens, voice search, or AI Mode icons? What if I’d prefer the bar stick to a monotone theme rather than follow the global Material color picks? What if I want to change my search engine beyond Google? Or perhaps forego web search results in this bar entirely? None of these options is available to me.

What really boils my tea is the redundancy on Pixel phones. The home screen search bar and the app drawer search bar essentially offer the same functionality. Yes, the latter doesn’t include an AI Mode, a shortcut to Lens or voice search, nor does it provide a long list of trending web searches, but these can all be integrated. Available through a downward swipe on the screen, I’d argue that using app drawer search is actually quicker and meshes with how I’ve used other launchers for years.

I’m well aware that Google wants users to access the web through its services as immediately as possible, which is why we’re unlikely to see the option to remove the search bar from the home screen. However, I’m certain that more users would consider using the Pixel Launcher if Google provided its community with more customization options. I’ve covered this in a previous article, detailing the many, many features and options I wish Pixel Launcher had, but I could just as easily find these options in third-party launchers.

I do want to give Google some credit, though. Journeys start with a single step. The option to hide At a Glance from Pixel Launcher is relatively minor, but it’s a solid start towards a more customizable default Google Pixel home screen. But, as my headline suggests, Google shouldn’t stop there.

There are so many elements it could implement that would make Pixel Launcher the unquestionable home screen choice on Pixel devices; similar settings for the search bar seem like the next logical step towards this goal.