[Q] Google Now "Phone Search" not working anymore ? HELP !

Daniel.Stevens · Nov 14, 2013

Hello ;0)
I noticed a strange behaviour on my Nexus 5 (or maybe Google changed something?):

On my Nexus 4 I had an option in the settings of Google Now to activate some apps that I could search "within" the Google Search. All I had to do was to activate them and then, on the bottom of the search results, I would swipe the small bar to the right till I got to the phone entry and it would show me search results from the specified apps and I could open the app from there and it would take me to the result within the app.

For example: A search for "Sarah Miche" would pop up as "Sarah Michelle Gellar" with an imdb and a wikipedia icon, I clicked that and the wikipedia/imdb app would start and open the page about Sarah Michelle Gellar.

I quite liked that and used it a lot...

On my Nexus 5 however the option is gone. The settings are still there. In Google Now under settings-phone search but it just enables me to search apps/Chrome Beta/Contacts/Play Movies. And "apps" will just allow me to search for apps I installed on my phone not to search "inside" those apps. (See screenshots)

So I thought "Meeehhhhh, f****. They removed a feature I really liked. Guess I have to live with that..."

Now for the strange part:
I installed google search and GEL on my tablet (running Android 4.3) an the option is still there (but it´s called "tablet-search" and "tablet")

AND IT´S WORKING... (See screenshots) Same freaking Google-Search build, same freaking GEL-build....

Am I doing something wrong ?!?!? Does my phone hate me ? What´s up with that ?

Any help would be appreciated ;0)

Thanks ...

P.s.: Sorry my phone and my tablet are in german but you should get the picture ;0)

Valynor · Nov 15, 2013

Same here, I don't even have "Chrome Beta" in the list.
But therein probably lies the answer: Google changed the way how Apps can "apply" to be shown in this list and not even the latest stock Chrome version has this feature yet (but the newer Beta does).

Also it seems to be a problem for the new GEL only, the list still works properly on my N10 with Google Search 3.1.8.x.

patrickem · Nov 15, 2013

I've read mention of a new API for this functionality and that devs need to apply it to their apps. Just weird that Google itself hasn't applied it to all their apps.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app

Daniel.Stevens · Nov 15, 2013

And that it still works on my tablet... ;0(

Gesendet von meinem Nexus 5 mit Tapatalk

MichellBak · Nov 15, 2013

patrickem said:
I've read mention of a new API for this functionality and that devs need to apply it to their apps.

Think you can find more info on that? As a developer I'd like to know, as my app uses the global search feature and it stopped working recently.

Daniel.Stevens said:
And that it still works on my tablet... ;0(

Any news on this?

On a side note, I created a question on Stackoverflow with the same issue.

lbrfabio · Nov 21, 2013

On my nexus 7 2012 I installed the 3.1 from the Nexus 5 a few weeks ago. After a reset of Google Search data the tablet search broke like on your Nexus 5...but I only noticed it when I upgraded to kitkat. I obviously thought it was kitkat the problem until today.

The problem is how Google Search 3.x handles the list. There must be a bug of some sort.
Here's why:
On my htc one s with cm10.2 (4.3) I reset the data of Search 3.1.8 to try something only to discover that the Phone Search list was almost empty like on my tablet!
I uninstalled it and the 2.6.7 version was restored from /system/app. The phone search list was full now, even after I updated to 3.1.8.

So, basically, if you open Google Search 2.x and then you update to 3.x the list will be there like it always did.
Who updated to kitkat without resetting the data won't have any problems (or whoever update to 3.1.8 on any phone\tablet without data reset)

StingerAJ · Feb 7, 2014

lbrfabio said:
On my nexus 7 2012 I installed the 3.1 from the Nexus 5 a few weeks ago. After a reset of Google Search data the tablet search broke like on your Nexus 5...but I only noticed it when I upgraded to kitkat. I obviously thought it was kitkat the problem until today.

The problem is how Google Search 3.x handles the list. There must be a bug of some sort.
Here's why:
On my htc one s with cm10.2 (4.3) I reset the data of Search 3.1.8 to try something only to discover that the Phone Search list was almost empty like on my tablet!
I uninstalled it and the 2.6.7 version was restored from /system/app. The phone search list was full now, even after I updated to 3.1.8.

So, basically, if you open Google Search 2.x and then you update to 3.x the list will be there like it always did.
Who updated to kitkat without resetting the data won't have any problems (or whoever update to 3.1.8 on any phone\tablet without data reset)

I found this commit in AOSP, which might be related:
https : // android.googlesource.com/platform/packages/apps/QuickSearchBox/+/ecf356c15143ab0583c64682de16d94a57f7dd1c

The commit message tells us that this feature was removed due to performance reasons (which might or might not be true, given that it references an internal ticket id and I didn't find a public issue here about this).

Since this part of the quicksearchbox is included in the ROM and released with Android 4.4, it doesn't matter which version of Google-Search you have installed. As long as you have updated to Android Kitkat 4.4 or newer, you won't be able to search the contentproviders of installed apps.

Nevertheless, I found this nifty, but ugly and ad-driven little app, which mimics device-search:

https : // play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.startapp.quicksearchbox

You should decline the initial request and ignore its Android 2.x-ugliness, though.

It takes some getting used to, but it works.

androidmin · Mar 10, 2014

StingerAJ said:
I found this commit in AOSP, which might be related:
https : // android.googlesource.com/platform/packages/apps/QuickSearchBox/+/ecf356c15143ab0583c64682de16d94a57f7dd1c

The commit message tells us that this feature was removed due to performance reasons (which might or might not be true, given that it references an internal ticket id and I didn't find a public issue here about this).

Since this part of the quicksearchbox is included in the ROM and released with Android 4.4, it doesn't matter which version of Google-Search you have installed. As long as you have updated to Android Kitkat 4.4 or newer, you won't be able to search the contentproviders of installed apps.

Nevertheless, I found this nifty, but ugly and ad-driven little app, which mimics device-search:

https : // play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.startapp.quicksearchbox

You should decline the initial request and ignore its Android 2.x-ugliness, though.

It takes some getting used to, but it works.

was a very usefull option :crying::crying::crying:

Gandalf82 · Jul 7, 2014

Hello I have installed Archidroid 2.5 ROM, but I have a problem with the research on the phone.
When I enter in the settings of google and now I open the page "search on the phone" there is no app is completely empty.
So I can not look in the app Email.
I think this problem is related to the app Google now.
So there is no way to make it work on the Cyano rom based?

Runar81 · Jul 29, 2014

Possible solution

Try to uninstall Google Search and do a update from Google Play. Worked for me.

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[Q] Google Now "Phone Search" not working anymore ? HELP !

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