Samsung Electronics is reportedly not going to switch its smartphone’s default search engine from Google to Microsoft’s Bing any time soon. According to the Wall Street Journal, citing sources, Samsung has suspended an internal review looking into replacing Google with Bing in its web browser app, which comes pre-installed on the company’s smartphones.
In April there were reports that Samsung was considering switching from Google to Bing as the default search engine on Galaxy phones. Previously, Samsung’s decision to make the switch was reportedly influenced by Microsoft’s Bing AI. At the time, the competition for AI dominance was fierce and the tech giant was determined not to fall behind.
Despite the unveiling of Google’s Bard AI, it failed to show any immediate prospects due to a lack of refinement.
However, it remains unclear why the company changed its decision, but one possibility could be traced to Google’s recent demonstration of its impressive AI game during the Google I/O 2023 event.
Meanwhile, Google is working in partnership with Android device makers to prevent random apps from killing in the background, and Samsung is the first to join in, which will benefit Galaxy phone owners when One UI 6.0 based on Android 14 launches later this year. The collaboration aims to address one of Android’s longstanding annoyances, limitations on foreground services and background working across devices.
“To strengthen the Android platform, our collaboration with Google has resulted in a unified policy that we expect will create a more consistent and reliable user experience for Galaxy users,” said Samsung, the BhaskarLive reported.
Additionally, the company said the partnerships with hardware manufacturers and the changes will allow developers to create apps that work consistently across different Android devices. According to the company, the Android 14 operating system will reduce restrictions on background apps by allowing developers to declare and request permissions specifically for foreground services. This makes foreground services usage clearer and only restricts apps when they aren’t needed.