Sometimes, you stumble onto a digital discovery of some sort and need a touch of time to wrap your head around if or how it could help you.

Other times, you slap something new onto your favorite phone and instantly realize your life has been upgraded.

Today, my friend and fellow holiday-hibernation waker, we’ve got a treasure of the latter variety to feast on for the start of 2026. It’s a snazzy little somethin’ I sunk my teeth into over the break and have been champing at the bit to share with ya since.*

Prepare to have that instant life upgrade sensation.

* By “champing at the bit to share with ya,” I mean “I briefly thought, ‘Ooh, I should totally write about this at some point!’ and then fell quickly back into a deep slumber, waking only for occasional pancake breaks, prior to my alarm going off and forcing me to return to the real world this morning.” But, alas. Here we are.

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Android search — supercharged

First things first, a quick hit of reality here: As exceptionally smart and stunning mammals who choose to carry cellular telephones based on Google’s mobile operating system, you’d think we’d have superb search powers at our fingertips 24/7.

I’m not talkin’ about regular ol’ web search or any manner of large-language-model chatbot chicanery, either. I’m talkin’ about the simple-seeming ability to search your entire device and everything on and around it in a single, streamlined spot — something you’d think gadgets connected to Google, of all places, would offer out of the box in a blow-your-mind kind of way.

But alas: For whatever reason, Android has never quite managed to achieve that and latch onto that ironically Googley advantage so many of us would appreciate.

And that’s where the tool I have for you today comes into play.

It’s an incredibly handy app called Pixel Search. But don’t let that name fool ye: It’s every bit as useful whether you’re using a Google-made Pixel gizmo or any other Android phone.

Pixel Search does one thing and one thing only: It gives you a new all-purpose search prompt on your home screen that’s lightyears ahead of whatever search system you’re relying on now — including, very much, Google’s own.

With one tap on the Pixel Search prompt, in that single streamlined space, you can:

• Search the web — using Google or any other search service you like
• Search Gemini, Perplexity, or any other LLM chatbot-style service
• Search through your own previous web searches, as made through the app
• Search through your contacts, then call or text any of ’em with one more tap
• Search through files you’ve downloaded or otherwise transferred to your device’s local storage and perform a variety of actions on any file you find
• Search for and then quickly open apps you’ve installed
• Search for and then quickly open specific app shortcuts — to jump directly to actual actions within apps you use
• Search inside Google Maps, YouTube, the Google Play Store, and other available services
• Search inside your system calculator and see instant answers to problems and equations

JR Raphael, Foundry

I’m tellin’ ya: This thing is phenomenal. It picks up exactly where an age-old Android go-to called Sesame Search left off, prior to its recent abandonment. And it couldn’t be much simpler to set up and start using:

• First, snag the Pixel Search app from the Play Store. It’s free, with completely optional donations to the developer if you want to support the effort (but no features locked behind paywalls or anything like that).
• Open ‘er up and follow the prompts to grant the app the access it needs to operate.
  • The app requires just a few lower-level permissions if you want it to be able to search through your contacts and files and also initiate phone calls for you, but it doesn’t request any deep levels of access — and its developer is clear about the fact that it doesn’t collect or share any manner of personal data.
• Aaaand — well, that’s pretty much it.

At that point, you should be sitting at the main Pixel Search search screen, and you can test it out for yourself to see how it works. Just start typing any character into the search box, and you’ll see results pop up across all the appropriate areas.

Not bad, right?!

Beyond the basic results, you can also tap the settings icon in the upper-right corner — at the right edge of the search box — to dig into Pixel Search’s settings and customize all sorts of stuff about how exactly the app looks and works. You’ve got oceans of interesting options to tweak, if you’re ever so inspired. But really, most of the default settings are perfectly fine, and you probably won’t need to do much, if any, adjusting.

JR Raphael, Foundry

All that’s left is to add the Pixel Search widget onto your home screen for easy ongoing access, and that’s no different than adding any other Android widget:

• Press and hold on any open space on your home screen.
• Tap the option to add a widget. 
• Scroll through the list of available options until you see Pixel Search.
• Tap it, if needed, to expand its section.
• Then either tap or press and hold the Pixel Search widget to place it wherever you like on your home screen.

JR Raphael, Foundry

Remember, too, that you can take total control of that search bar’s appearance by pokin’ around in the Pixel Search settings — if you want to add or remove extra shortcuts from it, for instance, or give it a different look in any way.

If you aren’t fond of the bar at all, you can also simply plop a shortcut to the Pixel Search app itself on your home screen — by pressing and holding its icon in your app drawer and then dragging it over to any position you like — or, if you’re really feeling wild, you can even add it as a one-tap tile in your Android Quick Settings for on-demand access from that area. (Look in the “Launch & Integration” section of the Pixel Search settings to make that addition.)

However you choose to use it, you’ll be flying around your phone like never before and finding anything you need in seconds flat.

That’s precisely how Android oughta work — and now, it’s the efficiency-enhancing experience you’ll enjoy, throughout 2026 and beyond.

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