Like them or not, Google has a lot of services that most users are used to. Of course, when they eventually don’t kill off the app and discontinue it. This, of course, won’t happen with Google Discover (the new Google Now) which brings news from your favorite topics one right swipe away. Sadly, Google Discover is not a viable option on many Android skins (e.g. Samsung’s OneUI). Today, we show you how to add Google Discover to the home screen.
- Enable Google Discover from the Home settings
- Use third-party launchers
- Add a Google icon or Search bar to the Home screen
Enable Google Discover from the Home settings
Most OEMs don’t have Google Discover implementation but some made it optional since Android 10 came out. They usually offer some built-in search screen or information tabs (Bixby screen on Samsung devices) on the -1 screen (swipe right on the Home screen).
Now, chances are that most people won’t use the -1 screen at all, but it would be quite handy to allow integration of Google Discover. Allowing users to choose what they want to see.
For example, although being a mixed bag of user experience, MIUI 12 on Xiaomi, Redmi, and POCO devices allows users to integrate Google Discover with the default system launcher.
Here’s how to do it on MIUI-powered devices running MIUI 12:
- Pinch on the Home Screen.
- Select Settings and tap More.
- Replace App Vault with Google Discover.
Use third-party launchers
Android skins on many handsets usually bring a lot of proprietary features and avoid Google’s services as much as possible. So, Xiaomi will offer an App vault, Samsung has its Bixby Home screen, and Huawei has Huawei Assistant. But all of this is not of importance as soon you switch to a third-party launcher.
With third-party launchers like Nova Launcher or Lawnchair 2, you can tweak so many things, apply custom icon packs, tweak gestures, and, of course, add Google Discover to a -1 screen.
We mentioned these two but there are dozens of launches that, with small variations in approach, can bring Google Discover feed when you swipe right on the Home screen.
We also highly recommend Nova Launcher because it is (still) the most feature-rich launcher if you purchase Nova Launcher Prime. However, if you want something simpler and free, Lawnchair 2 should be a good fit.
Also, certain features from the stock launcher might not work the best on third-party launchers. An obvious example is the bad utilization of full-screen gestures on Android 10 and Android 11.
In addition, enabling Google Feed on third-party launchers requires installing plug-ins (Nova companion and Lawnfeed).
Here’s how to enable Google Discover with the Lawnchair 2 launcher on Android:
- Download and install Lawnchair 2 from the Play Store.
- Open Settings.
- Choose Apps.
- Select All apps.
- Tap on the 3-dot menu and select Default apps.
- Select the Home Screen.
- Choose Lawnchair 2 as your default launcher.
- Download Lawnfeed APK from their website. Allow installation from third-party services and install the APK.
- Tap and hold on to the Home Screen.
- Open Home Settings.
- Select Plugins.
- Enable the Show Google App Feed option.
- Swipe right on the Home Screen to see Google Discover.
You’ll need to do the same on Nova Launcher, as it requires Nova Companion APK. If you have any issues on Nova and Google Discover (Google Now) is not showing, we got your back. We wrote an article where we try to address issues with Google Discover on Nova Launcher.
Add a Google icon or Search bar to the Home screen
Finally, if you don’t want to ditch the stock launcher, you can always just add the Google icon to the Home Screen and access Google Discover from there. Or you can add the Search widget to Home Screen and access Google Discover from there.
Here’s how to add the Search bar widget to the Home Screen on Android:
- Tap and hold on to the Home Screen.
- When the launcher menu appears, select Widgets.
- Look for Google. Tap, drag, and drop the widget on the Home Screen.
- Just tap on the Google icon in the bar to quickly access the Google Discover feed.
Voila! Google Discover is there. It might not be as convenient as the swipe right but it’s something.
And, on that note, we can conclude this article. Thank you for reading and don’t forget to check our Facebook and Twitter handles for more informative articles.
Editor’s note: This article was initially published in December 2020. We made sure to revamp it for freshness and accuracy.
