How to remove Android’s Discover page?

Kerem Gülen
Apr 17, 2023
Updated • Apr 17, 2023
Google Android, Tutorials
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32

Android users may have noticed a leftmost page called "Discover" on their phones that displays news and articles based on their interests.

While some users find the page helpful for staying up to date with the news and discovering new topics, others may find the content repetitive, filled with clickbait headlines, or simply not interesting. Luckily, there are ways to remove or customize the Discover page, let's get going!

Removing Discover page from Android

Here are some steps to remove the Discover page on Android phones:

  • Long-press on any homepage screen to bring up a pop-up menu.
  • Select "Home settings."
  • Toggle off "Swipe to access Google app."
  • This method will completely remove the Discover page from your phone.

How to create a blank Discover page?

Follow these steps on your Android device:

  • Tap your personalized icon in the top-right corner of the Discover page or the Google app.
  • Select "Settings" > "General."
  • Toggle off "Discover."
  • The leftmost homepage will now be blank, but there will be a "Turn on Discover" button in case you change your mind later.

How to remove Discover from Google Chrome app?

Follow these steps to remove Discover from Google Chrome application:

  • Start a new tab in the Chrome app.
  • Tap the gear icon just below your search results.
  • Tap "Turn off" on the drop-down menu.
  • This will remove the Discover page from the Chrome app.

If you prefer to keep the Discover page on your Chrome tabs but want to customize the content, tap "Manage" instead, and you'll be given several options to personalize the feed.

It's worth noting that the Discover page uses an algorithm to display content based on usage patterns. Therefore, the more you use your phone, the better the Discover page becomes at showing content that you find interesting. Additionally, some users may find the Discover page helpful for staying up to date with the news and discovering new topics.

Android smartphone

While the Discover page may be useful for some users, others may prefer to remove it or customize it to better suit their preferences. By following the steps above, Android users can easily remove or customize the Discover page on their phones.

It's important to keep in mind that removing or customizing the Discover page may affect the content and recommendations provided by the algorithm. Therefore, it's advisable to try out different options and settings to find what works best for each user.

Android users have multiple options for removing or customizing the Discover page on their phones. The quick fix method will remove the page entirely, while the blank page option will keep the page but remove all content. Google Chrome can also be customized to remove the Discover page or show personalized content. While the Discover page may be useful for some users, others may prefer to remove it or customize it to better suit their preferences. It's important to experiment with different options to find what works best for each user.

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Comments

  1. Anonymous said on October 11, 2023 at 8:14 pm
    Reply

    “To combat shady data brokers”

    What’s great with Google is that they are powerful enough to do lots of their immoral and illegal actions in the open. So only their other immoral and illegal actions can be called shady. They like to insist on that for their defense.

  2. Anonymous said on October 11, 2023 at 7:47 pm
    Reply

    Google is a privacy cancer. They already control the android operating system, why in addition buy their hardware ? It’s because of a barrage of lenient articles like that that most of people never learnt how much they should be hating Google, and more IT oriented people forgot it.

    The worst is that Google sells its added value now as being from privacy ! They shill in privacy communities as Pixel being the reference private phone instead of the de-Googled ones. And because they often silently control those communities, it works.

  3. Anonymous said on October 11, 2023 at 5:54 pm
    Reply

    “Not all Enterprise customers may be happy about the quarterly security updates that Lenovo and Esper promise. Google Android receives monthly security updates”

    The main security problem with android is not security updates but the android developer Google and the developers it allows and encourages on its platform (because, to begin with, Google decided to control who can use its platform, for a large cut of developer revenue and with abusive rules, but for some reason the applications ended being more malicious than from uncontrolled Windows developers).

    Android is so evil because mobile phones were the new device every one has to own but without a past of user resistance to capitalist rule, contrary to Windows devices. Taking that to desktop is bad news for user rights.

  4. Anonymous said on October 10, 2023 at 5:58 pm
    Reply

    Are there any alternatives to APKUpdater? Search seems to work somewhat, but anytime I try to click anything, absolutely nothing happens.

  5. ECJ said on October 9, 2023 at 5:58 pm
    Reply

    “…The PC is powered by a custom version of Android 11 that supports customizable branding. Lenovo promises quarterly security updates and at least three years of support.”.

    Errr, no thanks. I would rather monthly security updates, with 10+ years support – that you get with various Windows SKUs. Not to mention, they’ve launched it with a “custom” Android version that is already three years old. Enterprise users should probably give this a wide berth.

  6. nicolaasjan said on October 6, 2023 at 5:49 am
    Reply

    I don’t have an account on either, but as I replied to an earlier post of yours, there is this userscript, which hides older posts on new articles:

    [https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/476362-ghacks-hide-older-comments-final-version]

    Screenshot:
    [https://i.postimg.cc/nhxnYdXn/Screenshot-g-Hacks.png]

    (doesn’t hide newer unrelated posts in old articles though…)

    1. nicolaasjan said on October 6, 2023 at 6:00 am
      Reply

      [Edit]
      It looks like it stopped working…

      1. nicolaasjan said on October 6, 2023 at 6:08 am
        Reply

        [Edit2]
        It still works, but when I posted my response here, I got redirected to this older article, where the comment was placed as well:
        [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/04/17/how-to-remove-androids-discover-page/#comment-4574670]

      2. Robert said on October 8, 2023 at 1:32 am
        Reply

        The work around is to just look at the date the article was posted and scan down the page for relevant dates. Or use the “find on this page” option if the comments are too long.

  7. Anonymous said on October 5, 2023 at 9:10 pm
    Reply

    Quote: “One question that still needs to be answered is how replaceable the Pixel 8 battery is.”
    “Still not simple” is the answer
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmTDk2R1GMw

  8. TelV said on October 5, 2023 at 7:20 pm
    Reply

    Anybody got Twitter? If you click Martin’s name (in upper case) at the beginning of this, or any other article you’ll find his Twitter and Facebook links. Maybe somebody can pose a question to him about what’s happening to the Comments to see what the response is. I don’t have an account at either unfortunately and can’t help.

  9. Anonymous said on August 31, 2023 at 9:57 pm
    Reply

    How about other things that matter:
    Drop survival?
    Screen toughness?
    Degree of water and dust protection?

  10. Paul Knight said on August 31, 2023 at 3:35 am
    Reply

    The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)

  11. Naimless said on August 29, 2023 at 12:57 am
    Reply

    What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL

  12. ECJ said on August 28, 2023 at 5:37 pm
    Reply

    @Martin

    The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.

    https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/

    And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.

  13. John G. said on August 28, 2023 at 2:46 pm
    Reply

    @Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[

    1. Herman Cost said on October 9, 2023 at 4:20 pm
      Reply

      Do you still really believe that at this point Martin still has any control over gHacks? It seems clear enough to me that Softonic is phasing out Martin, Ashwin and anyone else who is actually getting paid and/or writing objective articles, and quickly turning this site one that is fully AI driven with revenue coming from articles which are drawn directly from advertising copy.

      As support for this thesis, please note that Martin has now started his own weekly tech newsletter and an additional news and review website called Chipp.in.

      1. Tom Hawack said on October 10, 2023 at 12:46 am
        Reply

        Chip.in [https://chipp.in/] and ‘Weekly Tech Insights’ [https://martinbrinkmann.substack.com/] indeed.
        I knew nothing of the former, thanks for sharing.

  14. Tachy said on August 27, 2023 at 5:15 am
    Reply

    @Martin

    You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.

  15. Anonymous said on August 27, 2023 at 2:30 am
    Reply

    Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?

    I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]

  16. Anonymous said on August 26, 2023 at 9:27 pm
    Reply

    Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?

  17. owl said on August 21, 2023 at 3:40 am
    Reply

    I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
    But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
    https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402

    It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
    What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.

  18. Andy Prough said on August 19, 2023 at 3:04 am
    Reply

    >”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”

    The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.

    I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.

  19. Anonymous said on August 18, 2023 at 11:17 pm
    Reply

    @tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
    Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
    3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.

    Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).

    But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.

  20. Tachy said on August 18, 2023 at 3:27 pm
    Reply

    @Martin

    Your website has gone insane.

    When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.

    1. Martin P. said on August 31, 2023 at 4:39 pm
      Reply

      @Tachy @Martin Brinkmann

      ” Your website has gone insane. ”

      Same here. Has happened several times.

      1. owl said on September 1, 2023 at 3:42 am
        Reply

        @Tachy,
        @Martin P.,

        For over two weeks now,
        I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
        https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
        https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
        For the time being,
        it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.

  21. Tachy said on August 18, 2023 at 3:23 pm
    Reply

    2G?

    Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.

    1. Doc Fuddled said on August 31, 2023 at 5:55 pm
      Reply

      Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??

    2. arbuz said on August 20, 2023 at 5:02 pm
      Reply

      Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.

  22. Albert said on August 18, 2023 at 1:49 pm
    Reply

    Thanks for the tip Martin.

    It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.

    1. Mike Williams said on August 26, 2023 at 8:55 pm
      Reply

      What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?

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