Google Discover has become a fairly regular feature on many Android phones, but not many owners agree. It has taken the position of the much-loved Google Now. Fortunately, you can now reverse it.
Google Discover
Google Discover can often be found on the leftmost panel of various Android home screens. You have to swipe for it, but then you also have something, a page with up-to-date information about everything. Very useful, but there are features of predecessor Google Now that are missed.
Can we all agree that this is what that page to the left *should* be used for? Like Google Now used to be, not the clickbait article list it is now. pic.twitter.com/n3aap93G95
— Kieron Quinn (@Quinny898) August 16, 2021
Discover Killer
Developer Kieron Quinn is currently working on a tool called Discover Killer, and as the name suggests, it’s not an app you’ll want to use if you’re really into Discover. The idea is that you can completely take Google Discover away from it and put whatever you want instead.
An example of a capability for that leftmost panel is Google Assistant Snapshot. It can show all kinds of things that are actually useful. Think of a list of your appointments for that day or a reminder that you still have something to do. You will miss the topicality in recent stories, because Discover does offer that, but you do get a more personal ‘page’ in return.
Xposed Module
You have to pay something for it because you can’t arrange it all that easily. Your phone must first be rooted, then you have to add ‘Discover Killer’ as an Xposed Module and then you have to think about what you want to put on it, writes 9To5Google . You can choose from Google’s Snapshot, but also for other options. It is up to you.
Moreover, after so long with Google Discover, it will also take some getting used to that Discover Killer, which is not simply available via the Play Store, but via, for example, Github. Without Discover, you might miss current affairs or other skills. On the other hand, the freedom you get in return is also very nice, because for some others that Discover page is more of an annoying side effect than the desired module for an Android phone.