Android Enthusiasts
Q&A for enthusiasts and power users of the Android operating system
Latest Questions
2
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0
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57
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How to search for text strings inside text type files in folders and subfolders?
I am looking for a method to perform advanced searches (boolean, wildcards, close matches, words within certain distance, etc) for text strings inside text-type documents stored in one or more folders and subfolders in the Android file system, without root. I would prefer to do this with the operati...
I am looking for a method to perform advanced searches (boolean, wildcards, close matches, words within certain distance, etc) for text strings inside text-type documents stored in one or more folders and subfolders in the Android file system, without root.
I would prefer to do this with the operating system's tools, but am willing to consider an app if necessary.
nijineko
(121 rep)
May 19, 2025, 04:06 PM
• Last activity: May 21, 2025, 05:56 PM
3
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4
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6080
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Change search engine in search bar on home screen on Android 11?
When I set up my new Fairphone 4 with Android 11, I selected DuckDuckGo as my search engine. This is now used in the bottom search bar on the home screen. Now I can't find the place in the settings to change this to something else in the settings. And searching the settings for "search" brings up no...
When I set up my new Fairphone 4 with Android 11, I selected DuckDuckGo as my search engine. This is now used in the bottom search bar on the home screen. Now I can't find the place in the settings to change this to something else in the settings. And searching the settings for "search" brings up nothing :-/
Where can I change the search engine for the search bar on the home screen?
This is what I need to find again: https://www.android.com/choicescreen/ The EU forces them to provide me with a choicescreen so that I can decide freely which search engine to use by default. But like for cookie banners, the EU guys are not the brightest when trying to control Megacorps, so they seem to allow Google to hide that screen very well.
All descriptions I found refer to changing the search engine in a browser only.
(It is lamented elsewhere already what a pita it is to have the search bar down there, but it seems we cannot get rid of it. In case someone knows better, that would suit me as well.)
Harald
(277 rep)
Mar 11, 2022, 03:02 PM
• Last activity: May 2, 2025, 01:54 AM
5
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2
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4223
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Find text within an email in Gmail
Mailing list digests are generally very long. They contain multiple emails concatenated together with an index and my traditional approach to reading a single email on the desktop is to use Ctrl+F (find text) to navigate/locate content within the email. Android browsers typically have a 'Find on Pag...
Mailing list digests are generally very long. They contain multiple emails concatenated together with an index and my traditional approach to reading a single email on the desktop is to use Ctrl+F (find text) to navigate/locate content within the email.
Android browsers typically have a 'Find on Page' function, but an equivalent doesn't appear to exist with Gmail. Have I overlooked something?
Alternatively- are there any apps that offer a generalized search mechanism for selectable text regions in Android or extend the functionality available from a long-press on selected text?
ebpa
(360 rep)
Jul 3, 2016, 05:42 PM
• Last activity: Oct 13, 2024, 12:03 PM
3
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1
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417
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How can I see what people are searching for on the Android Market? (i.e. Google Insights for Android Market?)
I'm interested in launching my application to the Android market, however I'm not sure if there is a market for my idea. I'd like to be able to put in a query and see how many searches there are for that query. Google do this for the normal web searches, [Google Insights for Search](https://www.goog...
I'm interested in launching my application to the Android market, however I'm not sure if there is a market for my idea. I'd like to be able to put in a query and see how many searches there are for that query. Google do this for the normal web searches, [Google Insights for Search](https://www.google.com/insights/search/) .
Example: I'd like to know which is a more popular search on the Android Market: "Motorbike" or "Motorcycle". You can do this for Google search engine using Google Insights.
Is there anyway to see what people are searching for on the Android Market, and to see how popular various searches are?
Amandasaurus
(561 rep)
Nov 17, 2010, 01:00 PM
• Last activity: Jun 12, 2024, 09:20 AM
2
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2
answers
8842
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Android Outlook Search problems
Outlook for Android appears incapable of searching my IMAP emails (text or even subject) except for the inbox. Zero matches every time, when Outlook on the desktop and Windows Mail have no trouble with the same mailbox. However new the emails, it can't find them if they are in any folder other than...
Outlook for Android appears incapable of searching my IMAP emails (text or even subject) except for the inbox.
Zero matches every time, when Outlook on the desktop and Windows Mail have no trouble with the same mailbox.
However new the emails, it can't find them if they are in any folder other than the inbox.
It searches all Gmail folders fine, however.
MandyShaw
(85 rep)
Jul 22, 2022, 07:05 AM
• Last activity: Nov 11, 2023, 01:22 PM
7
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4
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2828
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How to effectively search for apps on/without using Google Play?
Okay, so basically the Google Play store search is only for typing in the exact name of the app you already know and want to install. Every time I look for an app with certain functionality, I'm having great problems in finding it. Usually the results contain tons of spam applications and very few o...
Okay, so basically the Google Play store search is only for typing in the exact name of the app you already know and want to install.
Every time I look for an app with certain functionality, I'm having great problems in finding it. Usually the results contain tons of spam applications and very few of useful ones, or ones actually fitting the search keywords I used. Sometimes I find the apps I was looking for while browsing the store (hundreds of pages...) or digging through "top xx apps for yy" sites that usually come as a result of a regular google search.
**My question is** - are there any alternatives? How do I search for Android apps that do what I want them to do without digging through hundreds of pages of crappy, unrelated apps at Google Play or reading lists of hundreds of apps on silly web pages whose sole purpose is advertisement? I've read that there once was something called Chomp, but it seems like it doesn't exist any more (not sure, I think Apple bought it).
K.L.
(203 rep)
Jan 25, 2013, 02:52 PM
• Last activity: Jun 24, 2023, 02:58 AM
8
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1
answers
2157
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Can I disable the hardware 'Search' button?
I'm teaching my 85 year old mother to use her first phone. Her first ever bit of computing. The first use is texting and I've removed all the apps from the main screens except for the messaging app, and after a few days of casual instruction she's now texting and replying to texts very well. I've on...
I'm teaching my 85 year old mother to use her first phone. Her first ever bit of computing. The first use is texting and I've removed all the apps from the main screens except for the messaging app, and after a few days of casual instruction she's now texting and replying to texts very well.
I've only taught her two other buttons so far:
Home (she insists on calling it the 'Hut' button so if I call it the 'Hut' button she knows what I mean).
Back/Undo button
If she gets into something that she doesn't understand her instructions are to hit 'Hut' or 'Undo' and that will cure most things.
However she still gets caught out pressing the search button which brings up 'the internet' and that's currently really confusing, too much for her to handle :-)
This is a Samsung I5503T so has a physical 'Search' button on the lower right. It's right beside the undo/back button so gets hit by mistake (a lot). Is there any way to disable the physical 'Search' button or reassign it so it does nothing.
I'll eventually add more apps but starting slowly (since I live in a different town so most support is by landline phone :-(
asden
Apr 2, 2011, 02:41 AM
• Last activity: Apr 24, 2023, 03:21 AM
0
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0
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55
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App Search doesn't open in Play Store
I recently got an update on my phone to Android Version 12. Before this update, when I would scroll through my Apps I had a search bar on top where I could text-search through my installed Apps. If I typed in the name of an App I didn't have installed, it would offer to search through the Play Store...
I recently got an update on my phone to Android Version 12. Before this update, when I would scroll through my Apps I had a search bar on top where I could text-search through my installed Apps. If I typed in the name of an App I didn't have installed, it would offer to search through the Play Store for me.
This behavior no longer occurs. Instead, now when it can't find an installed App anymore, it automatically changes to a Google Search, but not without emptying my Search query entirely first.
Is there a way to get the old behavior back?
Model and Hardware: FP4
Manufacturer: Fairphone
Build number: FP4.SP1Y.B041.20230109
alex
(101 rep)
Feb 11, 2023, 03:27 PM
• Last activity: Feb 11, 2023, 07:38 PM
12
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4
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14182
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Is there a way for searching installed apps? (Dumb Search alternative)
I have been a victim of the infamous "let's turn off anything that Apple might have a patent for" aka "[dumb search][1]" on the Galaxy S3, and looking for a simple way to return my phone to the 21st century. All I want is the ability to find an App quickly and launch it by name, without visually fin...
I have been a victim of the infamous "let's turn off anything that Apple might have a patent for" aka "dumb search " on the Galaxy S3, and looking for a simple way to return my phone to the 21st century.
All I want is the ability to find an App quickly and launch it by name, without visually finding the Icon.
---
**What I want is a set of features that existed in older versions of Android**
1. In the Apps main screen, have the ability to search (currently works only for widgets)
2. If I find an App, I can press and hold it, and it will allow me to place it on any home screen
---
Use case #1 was removed and replaced by the Google Search app, which was as mentioned above downgraded to stop including local search (only shows web results)
Use case #2 was removed and has no workaround, I need to visually find an app to add a shortcut to it
I have searched in the Android Play store for "App Search", but found nothing, should I start writing my own app?
Eran Medan
(303 rep)
Jul 17, 2012, 02:18 PM
• Last activity: Nov 19, 2022, 04:59 PM
0
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0
answers
327
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Bug in chrome app with notification slider, starts search on page
So I have this bug, I already reported it to OnePlus but didn't get any feedback. I have a OnePlus 8T, which has a physical notification slider above the lock button on the side of the phone. This slider will put the phone in silent, vibrate, or sound-on mode. The bug is that whenever I do this when...
So I have this bug, I already reported it to OnePlus but didn't get any feedback.
I have a OnePlus 8T, which has a physical notification slider above the lock button on the side of the phone. This slider will put the phone in silent, vibrate, or sound-on mode. The bug is that whenever I do this when I'm in the google chrome app, it will start a search on page.
Is this a bug that people know about? Is it a feature? Any ideas what it could be?
I provided a screenshot below to show what I mean. Sorry for the dutch, but as you can see it started a "search on page" when on the right you see that it also switched to vibration mode
MrTomatosoup
(1 rep)
Nov 16, 2022, 10:01 AM
• Last activity: Nov 16, 2022, 10:01 AM
1
votes
1
answers
1045
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How can I search for a place amongst my visited places in the Google Maps Android app?
How can I search for a place amongst my visited places in the Google Maps Android app?
How can I search for a place amongst my visited places in the Google Maps Android app?
Franck Dernoncourt
(3304 rep)
Sep 29, 2022, 09:22 PM
• Last activity: Sep 30, 2022, 10:21 AM
1
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0
answers
22
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Searching for and copying Android app text elements running it on a PC
Problem: some Android apps present large portions of text and/or large forms, which, unlike web pages, are not friendly to searching or copy-pasting. Consider a generated value (like ticket reservation id, but longer) that you can't search for (to verify) or select (to copy). Can we somehow run this...
Problem: some Android apps present large portions of text and/or large forms, which, unlike web pages, are not friendly to searching or copy-pasting. Consider a generated value (like ticket reservation id, but longer) that you can't search for (to verify) or select (to copy).
Can we somehow run this unfriendly app on a PC and have a browser-like (maybe even devtools-like) interaction with its whole layout, doing anything we want with the displayed text values? What simulator or VM could help?
Anton K
(111 rep)
Aug 22, 2022, 07:45 PM
0
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0
answers
570
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Find text within web page from Samsung Internet browser
Similar to [this question][1], but for the Samsung Internet Browser (which is opened from the Google app). As is the case with PC desktop Chrome, using the never-fail `CTRL-F` and `F3` combination does yield the hit count in the search box along with the highlighted hits in the right-hand scrollbar....
Similar to this question , but for the Samsung Internet Browser (which is opened from the Google app).
As is the case with PC desktop Chrome, using the never-fail
CTRL-F and F3 combination does yield the hit count in the search box along with the highlighted hits in the right-hand scrollbar. On the tablet, however, most of the resulting page gets covered by a new layer of white nothing over it, which cannot be removed, unless it is then closed, upon which the search items are lost.
As to the alternative, some suggestions directed us to click on the Google "*Home*" area to acquire the search bar. Somehow, the device does not present as a candidate for Google Home, there may yet be another way to find text on a web page in the Samsung Internet browser.
Laurie Stearn
(203 rep)
Aug 15, 2022, 03:10 PM
• Last activity: Aug 17, 2022, 07:57 AM
4
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1
answers
1839
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How to find in which folder/app group is an app icon?
I'm using Samsung Galaxy S6 on Android 7.0. I cannot find a way to locate in which folder/app_group I misplaced an app icon. On iOS, you can achieve this very easily: If you searched for an app, you will see an app icon—which you can tap to launch the program—as well as a **header that tells you in...
I'm using Samsung Galaxy S6 on Android 7.0. I cannot find a way to locate in which folder/app_group I misplaced an app icon.
On iOS, you can achieve this very easily:
If you searched for an app, you will see an app icon—which you can tap to launch the program—as well as a **header that tells you in which folder the app is stored**.
If I use the search in the app drawer (GO Launcher Z or the default TouchWiz home screen app), I can easily find the app icon, but it will not let me know in which folder/app_group the icon is.
**This is a search example (for the Netflix icon/app):**
You can see that the icon is located in the media folder. In this case, it is easy to find, but when a folder holds more than 4 icons locating an icon is tedious.
How to find in which folder/app group is an app icon?
B lachance
(41 rep)
Jul 7, 2017, 01:14 PM
• Last activity: Mar 10, 2022, 05:00 PM
2
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1
answers
2711
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Make google searches and "Ok, google" open in broswer, not Google "App"
Is it possible to change my settings so that the results to me asking a question through "Ok, google" or typing on the search bar in my home screen, open in my default browser instead of the Google "App"? I dislike how the Google App isn't actually an app in the sense that I can't open it through th...
Is it possible to change my settings so that the results to me asking a question through "Ok, google" or typing on the search bar in my home screen, open in my default browser instead of the Google "App"?
I dislike how the Google App isn't actually an app in the sense that I can't open it through the recent applications shortcut, and the broswer-like window isn't actually saved in memory anywhere for me to go back to if I switch out after a search. Additionally it doesn't allow me to filter search results by date, etc. like a normal Google search does.
spacetyper
(439 rep)
Jul 8, 2018, 12:17 AM
• Last activity: Mar 10, 2022, 01:02 PM
6
votes
3
answers
4557
views
How do I set custom search engines in Android?
For years now, on every browser I own, Firefox, Opera, Chrome and Internet Explorer, I've assigned `w` as a shortcut/keyword to the custom search engine `http://www.google.com/search?q=site:wikipedia.org+%s&btnI`. That is, I just type `w android comparison` to jump to the befitting wikipedia article...
For years now, on every browser I own, Firefox, Opera, Chrome and Internet Explorer, I've assigned
w as a shortcut/keyword to the custom search engine http://www.google.com/search?q=site:wikipedia.org+%s&btnI . That is, I just type w android comparison to jump to the befitting wikipedia article. I use many, many other custom searches.
Is there a way to set this up on Android? Not necessarily with the stock browser?
William C
(1484 rep)
Dec 20, 2011, 07:14 AM
• Last activity: Jan 16, 2022, 09:37 PM
1
votes
2
answers
2518
views
Default google search country
I am normally fairly astute at being able to change settings etc, however, I have hit a problem I cannot overcome and thought to ask here: In android chrome, when I perform a search the searches (as of Wednesday) are all performed in google.nl and the results are returned in English. This means the...
I am normally fairly astute at being able to change settings etc, however, I have hit a problem I cannot overcome and thought to ask here:
In android chrome, when I perform a search the searches (as of Wednesday) are all performed in google.nl and the results are returned in English. This means the results are more appropriate for someone living in the Netherlands and not in the UK. I was wondering how I change the default search location as I cannot find it in Android at all (My PC based Chrome works as normal, and I can change that quite straightforwardly).
Would love to know how to set the default google search location for chrome back to google.com or google.co.uk.
All assistance gratefully accepted!
Cheers!
GMasucci
(111 rep)
Dec 11, 2016, 01:19 PM
• Last activity: Jan 13, 2022, 10:00 AM
1
votes
0
answers
29
views
How do I search for entries containing a given text or regular expression using TalkBack
I would like to know how to use TalkBack to search for entries by issuing a given partial keyword or regular expression. Perhaps, as an alternative, the user could speak an entry, and, after the text was entered, the user could check the text for correctness, by having it read aloud, letter per lett...
I would like to know how to use TalkBack to search for entries by issuing a given partial keyword or regular expression. Perhaps, as an alternative, the user could speak an entry, and, after the text was entered, the user could check the text for correctness, by having it read aloud, letter per letter, or as a whole, and then issue the search.
This could be useful in several contexts, for instance, the blind person is coding or using some app with menus or am interface with a list of buttons and wants to get to a given menu entry without remembering its position, without getting confused by listening to other entries, which may make them forget what they're doing.
Or they may be going through the chronology of a web browser, and cannot find what they're looking for.
It would be nice if there were a way to do this, because it would really help.
Thanks.
Joselin Jocklingson
(855 rep)
Jan 1, 2022, 06:46 AM
0
votes
2
answers
2297
views
Music Player that allows searching id3-tag field "comment"
I am using the id3-tag "comment" field to assign tags that characterize the content of songs to mp3 of my music library. The contents of a comment field of an mp3 file could look like this: upBeat happy fast bassHeavy In this example I want to be able to search my library for 'upBeat' and have all s...
I am using the id3-tag "comment" field to assign tags that characterize the content of songs to mp3 of my music library. The contents of a comment field of an mp3 file could look like this:
upBeat happy fast bassHeavy
In this example I want to be able to search my library for 'upBeat' and have all songs listed that contain this string in their comment field.
I have a DJ-Software on my laptop that supports this. I want to be able to do the same thing on my Android device. I tried it with shuttle, Poweramp, doubleTwist and phonograph so far. To me it looks like none of them are capable of achieving this.
Are there any players that support this?
If not, is there a different (better?) way of finding all songs belonging to one tag? Moving the same file to a different device (e.g. desktop computer) should not require reassigning the tags.
kyra
(101 rep)
Jul 21, 2017, 04:15 PM
• Last activity: Dec 12, 2021, 09:08 PM
0
votes
1
answers
171
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How can I configure Android so that the keyboard appears by default when clicking on the settings search box?
When I click on the search box in the settings, by default no keyboard appears: [![enter image description here][1]][1] I have to click again on the search box for the keyboard to appear. Instead I would like the keyboard to appear by default: [![enter image description here][2]][2] How can I config...
When I click on the search box in the settings, by default no keyboard appears:
I have to click again on the search box for the keyboard to appear.
Instead I would like the keyboard to appear by default:
How can I configure Android so that the keyboard appears by default when clicking on the settings search box?
I use Android 12 with a Google Pixel 6.
I have to click again on the search box for the keyboard to appear.
Instead I would like the keyboard to appear by default:
How can I configure Android so that the keyboard appears by default when clicking on the settings search box?
I use Android 12 with a Google Pixel 6.
Franck Dernoncourt
(3304 rep)
Dec 5, 2021, 09:10 PM
• Last activity: Dec 5, 2021, 09:46 PM
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