Gmail is easily among the most useful email applications around. Not only does the service do a great job of filtering out spam, learning over time. It also has plenty of sorting and organizational features, as well as snoozing, filtering, automated forwarding, and more. But, while those are all useful, one of the most helpful features is the Gmail search and search history feature. But that doesn’t mean you’ll never want to delete the search history in Gmail.
There is a number of reasons for doing so. Whether that’s because a search term was — or search terms were — entered incorrectly and is now taking up too much space in the automatic suggestions during a search. Or because there are too many searches that have been performed, to begin with.
Here’s how to delete your Gmail search history on your phone
Now, chances are, you’re like most people when it comes to Gmail. Namely, you likely use the service on your mobile device or tablet. So this first segment will cover how to delete your Gmail search history from there.
Go ahead and skip to the next segment if you need to delete your email search history from a browser or the web otherwise. Or if you’re looking to remove your search history one item at a time. Deleting the search history on a phone deletes the entire history.
For touchscreen devices in the web Gmail interface, here’s how to delete search history
Now if you’re learning how to delete search history in Gmail on a touchscreen gadget online, rather than in-app, the process will be different. As is often the case with how-to guides. Namely, because the “x” button indicated above isn’t going to appear. That is, not unless you’re using a mouse and hovering over the search term you’d like to delete.
So, if you’re on a touchscreen-enabled device, the exact steps above won’t work for you. Instead, you’ll need to follow the steps above until you reach step 4. Then, instead of following step four, you’ll need to tap the empty space to the far right of the search term you’d like to delete. No “x” icon will appear but, tapped properly, the search term itself will be deleted.
