In this digital age, one way to protect your online privacy without spending a dime is to delete your search history either on Google or other search engines. When you use the Google search engine, all your search queries will be stored as search history on your Google (Gmail) account which can be used to reveal what you are searching for online.
For this, it’s important to keep those queries off the Google search history, so, in this article, I will teach you how to delete Google search history to protect your online privacy.
Deleting your Google search history is highly recommended especially when a third party is using your computer [with your Google account logged in) or you want to gift someone your old computer. This will ensure that no threat can come from any way concerning your online privacy.
Note: You can download your Google search histories for future purposes before you choose to delete them.
So, in this guide, I will teach you how to delete search history on Google Search, Google Maps and Google Play Store on Android, iPhone and computer.
Recommended: How to Delete Google Search and Maps History
How to Delete Search History on Google Web
This works to delete search history on Google on all browsers. It doesn’t matter whether you are using Chrome, Safari, Opera, Edge and Firefox. So, by following the steps below I will teach you how to delete all your search history on Google.
- Go to your Google Account on your computer.
- Sign into your Google Gmail account with your username and password.
- Tap on “Data & Privacy.”
- Scroll down to “History Settings” and click on “Web & App Activity” under “Data Privacy.”
- Scroll down the page and click on “Manage All Web & App Activity.”
- Select “Delete Activity by” on the left side of the screen.
- Click on “All Time” to choose “All Time Search History.”
- Check all the boxes under “Choose Activity to Delete.”
- Click on the “Next” button to proceed.
- Click on the “Delete” button under “Confirm you would like to delete the following activity.”
You can click on “Preview More” to see more of the search history that you want to delete.
How to Delete Your Search History from the Google Search App
This is for more users to delete Google search history on the built-in Google search app on your phone.
- Launch the “Google Search App” on your phone.
- Tap on your “Profile” icon at the top right.
- Click on “Search History” from the menu.
- You may be asked to verify your identity before you can access the search history.
- Scroll down to see all your Google search history and tap “X” on the search history you want to delete. You need to repeat this process on all searches to delete them. However, to delete all your searches on Google click on the “Delete” button at the top right when you scroll down a bit.
- Choose “Delete all time” or choose “delete custom range” from the menu.
- Check “Select All” under “Choose activity to delete” and click on the “Next” button to proceed.
- Tap the “Delete” button at the bottom right to confirm that you would like to delete the selected Google search history.
How to Delete Search History on Google Maps
The fastest way to delete your search history on Google Maps is through the location history on your Google account. You can do this on your Windows or Mac; the process is the same.
How to Delete Google Search History on iPhone & Android
You can take control of your Google search history on your phone whether it’s Android or iPhone. So, here in this guide, I will walk you through how to delete your Google search history on your iPhone and Android.
- Launch the “Google Maps” app on your phone.
- Tap on your “Profile Picture” at the top right corner.
- Choose “Your data in Maps.”
- Scroll down to “Location History” and click on “See activity and delete.”
- Tap on the “3 dots” at the top right corner.
- Select “Settings and privacy” from the menu.
- Scroll down and click on “Delete all location history.”
- Check “I understand and want to delete.”
- Tap on the “Delete” button.
You will see a popup that says “Location History Deleted.” Tap on the “Done” button.
Web Browser
- Go to Google Maps on your browser.
- Click on the “Menu” icon at the top left corner.
- Scroll down and choose “Maps Activity.”
- Click on “X” next to your individual Google Maps history to delete it.
- To delete your search history within a range click on the “Delete” button and choose “Delete Custom Range” or “Delete All Time.”
- Choose the range and hit delete if you go with “Delete custom range” or delete if you choose “Delete all time.”
How to Delete Search History on Google Play
- Open the “Google Play Store” on your Android or Samsung phone.
- Click on your “Profile Picture” at the top right corner.
- Choose “Settings” from the menu.
- Click on “General” under the “Settings.”
- Tap “Account and device preferences.”
- Scroll down to “History” and click on “Clear device search history.”
- Tap “Clear History” from the popup
If you click on the search button you will discover that you no longer have your previous searches available there. This will clear your Google search history on the Google Play Store app.
How to Delete all Google History Automatically
Deleting your Google history automatically is simple. So, by following the steps below you will learn how to delete Google search history automatically.
- Go to “My Google Activity” on your computer
- Click on “Web & app activity”
- Now, click on “Choose to delete automatically”
- Select how long you want Google to keep your Google search history. You can select 3 months or 18 months and then click on Next.
- To keep your Google history for the period selected and delete automatically click on the confirm button. You can also delete all search history at the moment to let Google take care of the future search history by clicking on delete now.
- Done. Once it’s 3 months which is 90 days or 18 months which is a year and 180 days, Google will automatically delete all your Google search history in your Google history timeline.
How to Delete Google Search History on Phone
There is no need to delete your Google history again on mobile once you have done that on PC. This will delete all history across all your devices if it is the same Google account you linked to all your devices.
However, if you don’t have access to your PC at the moment you can follow this procedure to scrape Google History to delete all at once.
- Go to Google.com in your mobile browser
- Click on the horizontal line to the upper-left
- Click on Search activity
- Click on: Delete by activity
- Select when to delete your search history and click delete
- To delete your Google search history automatically click on choose to delete automatically under the search activity
- Choose how long you want Google to keep your web & app activity and click on next.
- Confirm your search history preference and click on the confirm button
This will delete all your Google search history across all your devices where you logged in to the same Gmail account on your phone.