Unified Pixel Launcher search disappears on Android 13 stable, fix coming

Abner Li | Aug 15 2022 - 6:11 pm PT

After installing Android 13’s stable release today, beta users might notice that the new unified Pixel Launcher search experience has disappeared.

One of Android 13’s best features on Pixel phones is that it unifies web and device search. The search bar at the bottom of your homescreen is now the same as the field that appears at the top of the app grid.

After updating to the stable release of Android 13 from Beta 4.1, all our devices have lost unified search. This includes phones where we manually sideloaded the update and those that received the small on-device OTA from Beta 4.1 to stable. We’re seeing this issue on several Pixel 4a, 6, 6 Pro, and 6a units.

One telltale sign of this regression is how the search fields are no longer identical, with the app drawer’s bar losing the “G” logo, microphone, and Google Lens icon. The actual experience from the homescreen returns to the years-old one with no Material You stylings.

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Google told us this evening that it’s aware of the issue and that it will be resolved in an “upcoming release.” Hopefully, this can be fixed via a server-side fix as the issue appears to have regressed without any end user action or app update.

Android 13 Beta users had unified search throughout the preview and briefly after updating to the stable release. The new UI automatically disappears after some time or following a device reboot.

Meanwhile, Google has a fix for how Android 13 Beta users cannot sideload the OTA due to the image being older than the Beta 4.1 patch. The on-device (Check for OTA) update is widely rolling out this afternoon.

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