Unified Pixel Launcher search missing in Android 13

After installation stable version of Android 13 Today, beta users may notice that the new Pixel Launcher unified search experience has disappeared.

One of the best features of Android 13 on Pixel phones is that it unifies both web and device search. The search bar at the bottom of your home screen is now the same field that appears at the top of the app grid.

After updating to the stable version of Android 13 from Beta 4.1, all of our devices lost unified search. This includes phones where we manually downloaded the update and those that have received the on-device micro OTA from beta 4.1 to stable level. We are seeing this issue on many Pixel 4a, 6, 6 Pro, and 6a units.

One clear sign of this regression is how the search fields no longer match, with the app drawer bar missing the “G” logo, microphone, and Google Lens icon. The actual experience from the home screen is back to the old one with no imitations.

L: new | R: old

Google told us this evening that it is aware of the issue and that it will be fixed in an “coming release”. Hopefully this will be fixed by a server side fix as the issue appears to have regressed without any end user action or app update.

Android 13 Beta users have standardized the search throughout the preview period and after a brief update to the stable version. The new user interface disappears automatically after some time or after restarting the device.

Meanwhile, Google has a fix for how Android 13 Beta users can’t load OTA because the image is older than the Beta 4.1 patch. The on-device update (check for OTA) is being widely rolled out this afternoon.

L: new | R: old