If you own a modern Android smartphone (such as a Google Pixel or a recent Samsung Galaxy), swiping from the left edge of your primary home screen pulls up a dedicated page called “Google Discover.” This page is an infinite-scrolling feed of news articles, sports scores, stock prices, and targeted advertisements, all algorithmically generated based on your Google Search history and Chrome browsing habits.
While some users enjoy this personalized news feed, many find it incredibly distracting. Because the feed is designed to be highly engaging (and sometimes uses clickbait thumbnails), accidentally swiping left can easily suck you into a time-wasting scrolling session when you simply intended to open an app. Furthermore, it constantly pulls background data to refresh the news snippets. If you want a clean, minimalist home screen experience that only displays the apps and widgets you manually place there, you must completely disable the Google Discover feed.
Disabling Google Discover via Home Screen Settings
You can completely sever the connection between your home screen launcher and the Google Search app, permanently removing the swipe-left page.
- Navigate to your primary Android Home Screen.
- Find an empty patch of wallpaper (where there are no app icons or widgets) and press and hold your finger on the screen for about two seconds.
- The home screen will zoom out, and a small menu will appear at the bottom of the screen.
- Tap on Home settings (on some devices, this may simply be a gear icon or labeled “Settings”).
- Scroll through the list of home screen options until you find the toggle switch for the Discover feed. Note that different manufacturers use slightly different names for this setting:
- On Google Pixel devices, look for Swipe to access the Google app.
- On Samsung Galaxy devices, look for Add media page to Home screen or Google Discover.
- On OnePlus or Motorola devices, it is usually called Swipe Access or Google Feed.
- Tap the toggle switch to turn it Off.
- Press your phone’s home button (or swipe up from the bottom) to return to your normal home screen.
Test the change by aggressively swiping your thumb from the left edge of the screen toward the right. The screen will no longer slide over. Your home screen is now completely locked to your customized pages, entirely eliminating the algorithmic news feed from your daily workflow.