Quick fix: get rid of Android’s Discover page

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If you don’t like the articles that Google’s homepage news feed is serving you, you can easily get rid of it.

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Issue

Google’s Discover page, which is the leftmost page on many Android phones, can be a useful source of news, or it can be an irritating list of clickbait headlines and repetitive articles. And because it is an intrinsic part of the OS on many phones, unless you actually installed it yourself, you probably can’t uninstall it.

You can try to adjust the content by selecting the two dots at the bottom right of each article and letting the algorithm know you’re not interested, but that doesn’t always work. Or you can simply get rid of it.

Sometimes, you’ve seen enough rats.

You can try to tweak the Discover page algorithm; it doesn’t always work.

Quick fix

Long-press on any homepage screen until you get a pop-up menu. Select Home settings and toggle off Swipe to access Google app. And that’s it — the Discover page is gone.

When you have the pop-up menu, press “Home settings.”

Toggle off Swipe to access Google app, and the Discover page will completely disappear.

The full story

The Discover page uses an algorithm based on your usage to exhibit a listing of various articles pulled from the web that it thinks will interest you. However, even if you let it know what you’re interested or not interested in by using that two-dot More icon at the bottom right of each article, the list can still become packed with pushy headlines, repetitive blogs, or just plain wrong stuff.

If that is what’s happened on your phone and you just want to get rid of the whole thing, then follow the directions above. After that, you will no longer be able to swipe right from your initial homepage to the Discover page — it will simply be gone. (You can, of course, get it back by following the same directions and toggling Swipe to access Google app back on.)

Create a blank Discover page

There is another option if you don’t want to completely get rid of the Discover page but are tired of seeing that long list of headlines.

• From your Discover page or your Google app, tap your personalized icon in the top-right corner.
• Select Settings > General.
• Toggle Discover off.

Once you get to the General settings page, you can toggle Discover off.

Google would like you to restore Discover to its rightful place.

You will now find your leftmost homepage is blank instead of filled with a long list of unwanted content. Well, almost blank — there will be a Turn on Discover button in case you change your mind.

Remove Discover from your Chrome app

Oh, and you may also find that the Discover page has invaded your phone’s Chrome app so that you see the Discover feed just below your recent search results every time you start a new tab. Luckily, it’s easy to get rid of.

• Start a new tab on your phone’s Chrome app, and tap the gear icon just below your search results.
• Tap the Turn off option on the drop-down menu.

You can also get rid of Discover on your Google Chrome app.

Select Manage instead, and you have several ways to influence the feed.

If you don’t mind having Discover on your Chrome tabs but just don’t like the content you’re getting, tap the Manage option, and you’ll be offered several ways to try to tame the feed.