Here’s how I gave my google discovery flow useful again

As a relatively new Google Pixel regular, the discovery flow has become a central part of the habit of my smartphone. The sliding on the right on my home screen replaced a dedicated news widget, helping me keep my pixel launcher concentrated on the configuration. However, during this transition, I found that the recommendations pushed by my discovery flow were far too random for my taste. I needed to do something if the service would become a must in my life.

I have spent a lot of time in recent weeks to experience and tinker carefully various parameters and habits to refine my discovery flow to my tastes. Here are some of the things I have learned and now do to keep the flow in a point.

The use of your main Google account with your discovery comes naturally, but that does not make it the best option. You can have as many Google accounts connected to your device as you wish, and you can choose all (or all) to use with Discover. I myself have a few accounts, so I did exactly that. I will enter my reasons in a few moments, but if you do not have a secondary account, I suggest you create one specifically for your discovery needs.

Yes, you can use your main Google account to discover; I did it in the past. However, I have encountered several problems with this approach. I never use this account to access a Google service, like Gmail or Notebooklm, so I prefer to keep it without any other navigation data. Everything I’m looking for online is without being connected or via another browser entirely. Due to the lack of navigation data of this account, Google essentially guesses what I want to read rather than making informed decisions according to my habits and my interests.

Of course, if you use Google Chrome or the Google application to browse the web while connecting to your main Google account, you will not have the same problems as me. However, with this approach, your main story will be influenced by years of random navigation habits. Even in this case, using a new secondary account as a clean slate can make more sense.

I also found a surprising advantage in the two -account method. With two Google accounts, you can mainly organize two very different experiences. In practical terms, you can use an account for news of lifestyle, cooking and entertainment, and one for formal news, financial data and politics.

Can you reset a Google Discover flow?

If you want to use your main account to discover, it may be wise to rub them with the previous habits if you want to regain control of your content. I looked for a way to do exactly that, essentially a method to completely reset the recommendations of existing discoveries. However, it seems that Google offers no documented options for this.

However, you can try these potential bypass solutions:

• You can take more control of the recommended content by managing your search history. Discover keeps a newspaper executed research requests made in the Google application, and I found that they inform the content you see in your flow. Take the time to browse everyone by pressing your profile photo, then selecting Research history. You can go nuclear by pressing DELETE button and selection Delete all time or pass every day individually.
• Alternatively, you can try to erase the Google application data on your device. In particular, this will not change your discoveries of discoveries on another phone or your account as a whole. Based on my experience, two devices will offer very different discovery flows even if they use the same Google account.

In short, there is no magic way to reset your Google Discover flow to a default state. The only surefire way is with a whole new Google Shiny account.

I have not always seen my eyes with Google News, but I concede that it has become essential to whisk my flow of discovery. I generally use news with my above -mentioned tertiary Google account, and therefore, my Google News and Discover flows are remarkably similar. Therefore, I can (and do) also use news to influence my discovery flow.

If I use another phone or Android device, I will use Google News instead of discovering on this device to read items. Although the Google application is connected to the same account on two phones will not offer the device a coherent flow, the news application. This is one of the reasons why I prefer the use of the company’s news application to fold my discovery flow to my will rather than the flow itself.

Although I have often used perplexity and other AI research services to fill my new empty, I always use news to explore local reports.

Don’t forget the Google News search bar

If I am frustrated that Google Discover does not use me with articles from a particular site, I will look for this source in Google News. Yes, the Google application has a search bar, but it offers web search results, not information cards. You can also use the search bar to jump on specific subjects, whether it is as wide as “technology” or as “airpods”.

Based on my experience, the more specific subjects you are looking for, the more Google will consider your apparent interests.

Google is generally good enough to identify the subjects that interest me, but not so good to recommend reliable sites. I don’t mind meeting new random subjects – this is one of the reasons why discovering is perfect for storming through the content. However, I would prefer to completely avoid specific sources, even if they cover a subject that I like.

There is still value to hide subjects, but I find this step less important than the hiding places that I don’t like. There was a brief period when Discover thought that I liked to read on luxury yachts (I mean, of course?). After telling Google that I was not interested in the subject (press the three -point menu button from the article card, then press Not interested in [topic]), he finally received the message.

It is also essential to select the subject that best resembles the content you prefer to avoid and not to use the more vague options offered, as Not interested in that. For example, if you want more content on travel but exclude yachts, tell Google that you don’t want to know more about it. The more pointed with Discover, your more flow results will improve.

This tip seems obvious, but many of us are guilty of making the headlines and not interacting with the engaging content that we see on discovering. I raised my hand. More recently, I pushed myself to read articles on subjects that I like and to save the items that have stood out to me.

The backup installation is an important tool here; Use it. I found that saving articles related to plane travel also has similar content. You can find all the items you have saved to discover in the Saved tongue. Once selected, press the Favorite pages collection.

Regarding reading articles, I also noted that the more I scroll and the longer in an article, the more it will recommend similar content from this site and this subject in the future.

Curiously, I prefer to read complete articles in Google News, but provided that you interact with the article in question, I do not believe that the platform really counts. This small strategy does wonders for monomopid sites, and soon you will receive more articles focused on this specific subject.

Finally, if you want to discover to display more content on the sports teams you like or the financial indicators that hold you, select them in the Google application Parameters section. Just below the search area, press ParametersSo make sure it Finance And Sport The boxes are checked. You can select indicators and teams by pressing Manage buttons under their respective boxes.

Admittedly, I don’t particularly want to hear about the unit man. Since I proposed this data to Google, Discover has fueled me stories related to football and cricket with an increasing frequency.

Of course, the engineering of your Google Discover flow is not an exact science. To date, I always find random content in my flow. Nevertheless, it was the things I found that influenced my discovery flow for the best.