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You don’t need a Pixel 11 to try Google‘s new Pixel Search app
Sideloading the Pixel Search app brings expanded search to older Pixels running recent Android 17 QPR2 beta builds.
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Joe Maring / Android Authority
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TL;DR
- Pixel 11 introduced a preinstalled Pixel Search app that expands the app drawer search bar to surface additional content, such as photos and emails.
- Google didn’t announce any plans to expand Pixel Search to other phones, though the app listing was briefly accessible on Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 lineup before Google corrected and clarified that this was unintended.
- As we’ve now found, older Pixel phones can run the Pixel Search app via sideloading, but it requires Android 17 QPR2 Beta 5 or newer to function properly.
The Pixel 11 series comes with a new Pixel Search app that expands the capabilities of the phones’ app drawer search bar, allowing users to surface additional information, such as photos and emails. Pixel Search comes preinstalled on the Pixel 11 series and is updated through the Play Store, but you can’t use it on older Pixels — not yet, anyway. If you’re willing to take matters into your own hands, you can get it to work on your older Pixel.
As we found out, the new Pixel Search app can be sideloaded and used on older Pixel phones, but there is a catch: Your phone must be running Android 17 QPR2 Beta 5 or newer for the app to work.
While the app cannot be installed from the Google Play Store on older Pixels, manually installing the APK does work. We sideloaded the Pixel Search app on a Pixel 9 running Android 17 QPR2 Beta 6, which yielded a functional search experience, whereas attempts to run it on stable Android 17 QPR1 builds failed. Feedback from user reports on Telegram aligns with these findings, indicating that Android 17 QPR2 Beta 5 is the baseline requirement for the app to initialize properly on older Pixels.
Interestingly, Pixel Search’s early Play Store listing was briefly visible on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, though Google later clarified to Droid Life that this was unintended, and that the app was intended only for the Pixel 11 series at the time.
While Pixel Search’s Play Store listing remains locked to the Pixel 11 lineup for now, the fact that the app already runs on older devices with newer Android beta builds strongly suggests Google could eventually open up official compatibility at least to older Pixels down the road. The company hasn’t mentioned any plans for doing so, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed for good news.
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Android 17GoogleGoogle PixelGoogle Pixel 11
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