Removing google searchbar

Help Fairphone 3
,
30

I also was not able to remove the search bar. Disabling the Google app just leaves a useless white bar.

So, I tried other launchers. This is my experience:

  • Lawnchair: Outdated, at least on F-Droid. Did not try it.
  • Rootless Pixel Launcher aka Launcher3: Same problem, search bar cannot be removed.
  • KISS launcher: Replaces the Google search bar by a more useful one but has a quite different approach (only one widget, app icons automatically arranged, …)
  • Essential Launcher: No search bar but only one widget and up to seven favorite apps.
  • Light Android Launcher: No search bar, no widgets, no app icons.
  • Zim Launcher: Very powerful launcher which does the trick but seems a bit unstable at the first glance.
  • Bliss Launcher: Search bar with different provider, some fixed widgets which cannot be removed, app drawer on home screen.
  • Fairphone 2 Launcher: Works well if you like edge swipe.
  • OpenLauncher: Very nice but a bit fiddly to set up.
4 Likes
31

What do you think of Lean Launcher

32

I only checked apps on F-Droid.

33

Lawnchair is maintained.

You linked to v1. That is no longer maintained, and for some reason it can’t be removed from F-Droid. If you get it from the Play Store, you’ll get v2.

6 Likes
34

Well… there is a reason: the Google Play/v2 version includes proprietary libs, so well… not so much FLOSS…

See (and upvote) this issue:

4 Likes
35

Lawnchair is great! Lots of customization options and no Google searchbar!

My FP3 homescreen went from this…

Screenshot_20191106-030721
Screenshot_20191106-0307211080×2160 690 KB

…to this -------------------------------->
Screenshot_20191112-095005
Screenshot_20191112-0950051080×2160 729 KB

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36

So you can’t put a different widget, of your choice, in that space?

37

I don’t know how to, that’s for sure. I ended up with an other launcher. There’s a plethora of them available. Some open source, some partly open source, some closed source. Some very basic ones, some very advanced, etc.

4 Likes
38

Another Launcher is the solution. I use the Blackberry Launcher (because it was on my last phones) and there is no Google Searchbar or something like that

2 Likes
39

I’m using Evie Launcher. Simple standard launcher with quite a few options for home, drawer and dock.

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40

not only now use lawnchair … also got this nice weather-app “windy” … :wink:
thnx for showing

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41

Will there be an option to disable the bar in future software updates? Is Fairphone working on it? Many thanks in advance!

1 Like
42

The search bar is part of the stock launcher …

https://forum.fairphone.com/t/improving-the-software-of-fp3/54799/38?u=anotherelk

2 Likes
43

Hi there,

I’m not using the Hey Google bar on FP3, is there a way to remove the bar? Just tapping it does not seem to work. It’s just taking up space like this.

Thanks!

44

I moved your post here to avoid duplicate topics, please have a look around.

3 Likes
45

Just received my new FP3 today and spending the whole day on setting it up. The GOOGLE SEARCH BAR on the home screen is at the current moment driving to loose my mind of irritation. Can some of you nice people here please help me not loosing my mind with removing this. Would be very much appriciated.

Thanks a lot!

46

The Google search bar is tied to the launcher that comes with the Fairphone OS on the FP3. There are many alternative launchers out there - you might want to give Lawn Chair a try for a start. Available from the Play Store

or from the app store of your choice.

3 Likes
47

Hi!
I just got my Fairphone 3 today and this searchbar drives me crazy (I already regret that I wanted to switch from FF2 to FF3…).
I downloaded and installed Lawnchair as suggested. Then I started customizing everything and after I almost finished I noticed another problem:
As soon as I tap at one of the three symbols at the bottom of the screen, Lawnchair kind of closes and I’m back at the “normal” home screen with this stupid Google-bar… Do I still have to switch other settings? I have no idea what I might have missed and it’s really annoying right now.
So I hope, somebody can help me with finally getting rid of that searchbar permanently. :wink:
Thanks a lot!

1 Like
48

Did you set it up as your default launcher app?

1 Like
49

Make sure Lawnchair is set as the default App in Settings - Apps & notifications - Default apps - Home app.

Else … which Lawnchair did you install? I don’t know such a problem from the version in F-Droid.

If you really can’t get it to work (try uninstalling/reinstalling it), there’s still Trebuchet (the stock launcher of LineageOS), which I found to get pretty close to it … https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/app-lineageos-15-trebuchet-laucher-rom-t3667436/

6 Likes