Manage my default search engines in Firefox for Android
Revision Information
- Revision id: 263642
- Created:
- Creator: Paul
- Comment: Staff approval required. Updates for Fenix 116. Bug 1842689.
- Reviewed: Yes
- Reviewed:
- Reviewed by: lsiebert
- Is approved? Yes
- Is current revision? No
- Ready for localization: Yes
- Readied for localization:
- Readied for localization by: lsiebert
Revision Source
Revision Content
Firefox for Android gives you the ability to add, remove and change a default search engine. There are a variety of search engines available to choose from, such as Google and Bing. You can also manually add other search engines and set one of them as your default.
Table of Contents
Change the default search engine
- Tap the menu button
- Tap .
- Tap from the General section.
- Tap one of the radio buttons to select your default search engine.
- Tap the address bar to switch to search mode.
- Tap the search engine icon next to the address bar.
- Tap .
- Tap .
- Select the search engine of your choice.
Change the search engine for a single search
- Tap the search bar to start a new search.
- Tap Search engine.
A list of search engines will appear. - Select the search engine you want to use for this search.
This will not change your default search engine.
- Tap the address bar to switch to search mode.
- Tap the search engine icon next to the address bar.
- Select the search engine you want to use for this search. This will not change your default search engine.
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- You can also search only in your bookmarks, open tabs or browsing history.
Edit search settings
- Tap the menu button
- Tap .
- Tap from the General section.
- Under the Address bar section toggle any of the following settings:
- Tap the address bar to switch to search mode.
- Tap the search engine icon next to the address bar.
- Tap .
- Under the Address bar section, toggle any of the following settings:
- Autocomplete URLs: Autocomplate website addresses entered into the address bar.
- Show clipboard suggestions: If the last thing you copied to the clipboard was a link, the option "Fill link from clipboard" shows up when you tap the address bar in a new tab.
- Search browsing history: Include your browsing history in searches from the address bar.
- Search bookmarks: Include your bookmarks in searches from the address bar.
- Search synchronised tabs: Search tabs that you have synchronised from another copy of Firefox using Firefox Sync.
- Show voice search: Display the microphone icon to be able to perform a web search using voice.
- Show search suggestions: Display search suggestions from your default search engine when you enter URLs or keywords in the address bar.
- Show in private sessions: Display search suggestions when searching from the address bar in private browsing sessions.
Add a search engine
- Tap the menu button
- Tap .
- Tap from the General section.
- Tap Add search engine.
- A list of additional predefined search engines display.
- Tap the Other radio button to add a search engine that hasn’t been included in the predefined list and do the following:
- Enter a name for the search engine in the Name text field.
- Enter a search string URL in the Search string to use text field.
- Tap the confirmation button at the top right corner of the screen.
- If the search string URL is flagged as invalid, an error message will display to help you provide a valid URL.
- Tap the address bar to switch to search mode.
- Tap the search engine icon next to the address bar.
- Tap .
- Tap .
- Tap .
- Enter a name for the search engine in the Name text field, enter a search string URL in the Search string to use text field and tap .
- Please be sure to replace the query string with “%s”, for example:
https://www.google.com/search?q=%s
https://www.startpage.com/sp/search?q=%s
https://search.brave.com/search?q=%s
https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=%s
If you don't know which search string to use for a particular search engine, you can access its website in a new tab, do any search and use the resulting URL as a reference. For example, if you go to ecosia.org and search for firefox, the resulting URL in the address bar will be https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=firefox. Then the search string must be https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=%s, replacing the query with "%s".
The search engine is added to the predefined list of search engines in alphabetical order.
Manage search shortcuts visible in the search menu
- Tap .
- Tap from the General section.
- Tap .
- You can then turn on off the search engines you wish to be visible from the search engine icon in the address bar.
Remove a search engine
- Tap the menu button
- Tap .
- Tap from the General section.
- Tap the three dots to the right of the search engine.
- Tap .
The search engine no longer displays in the list. A confirmation displays at the bottom of the screen. You can tap UNDO if you would like to add the search engine back to the predefined list. This search engine will also now appear under Add search engine if you wish to add it back again later.
- Tap the address bar to switch to search mode.
- Tap the search engine icon next to the address bar.
- Tap .
- Tap .
- Tap the three dots to the right of a search engine added by you.
- Tap .
Manage search shortcuts
- Tap the address bar to switch to search mode.
- Tap the search engine icon next to the address bar.
- Tap .
- Tap .
- Select the engines you want to have visible in the search menu.