Google Now Allows iOS Users to Delete ‘Last 15 Minutes’ of Search History
Earlier this year, Google at the IO event had announced that it is coming up with a new feature that allows users to delete the last 15 minutes of their search history on iOS and Android. The tech giant has now rolled out a set of new privacy features, including a quick delete feature for iOS users. This feature is an extension of Google’s auto-delete feature. The users can also use incognito mode to look for search options they wish to remove, this feature allows users to delete what they browsed in the last 15 minutes.
The company in a blog post said that the reason for launching these new privacy features are really important especially for those who share a device with others and make sure that they are not able to access your search history. Now, the tech giant is allowing users to add extra security to the searches they’ve saved in their accounts.
Users can select for further verification for ‘My Activity’ when logging in with their Google account, which will require them to give additional information before the complete history can be accessed. The additional information could be anything from the two-factor authentication or their Google password. Following are the given steps that allow users to enable the quick delete option:
- The first step is to go to the Google Account Menu.
- Then, tap on your profile picture or an avatar icon.
- Now, you’ll see a ‘Delete last 15 minutes history’ option.
- To delete your search history, select the above option.
If you find this process a little tough, you can also choose to delete everything by giving voice commands in Google Assistant. To remove the information you can say “Hey Google, delete everything I said to you last week” or “Hey Google, that wasn’t for you”.
Apart from this, Google also enables users to delete their search history automatically along with other app and web activity, at specified intervals as per their preferences- three, 18 or 36 months. However, for the users with a new account, the default time period set for deleting the search history is set at 18 months. But the users can update this setting by going to the ‘My Activity’ section.
You can also delete this last 15 minutes search history with a single tap of a button, but this feature is currently available only for iOS. Google will introduce this feature for Android later this year.