Firefox for Android
Firefox for Android
Last updated:
48% of users voted this helpful
Last updated:
48% of users voted this helpful
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.
Note: Some of the search engines introduced here are regionally bound and may not be accessible from every location. To ensure a smooth experience, make sure the search engine you are interested in adding or using is compatible with your region.
Table of Contents
Change the default search engine
- Tap the search engine icon in the address bar.
- Tap Search Settings.
- Tap Default search engine.
- Select the search engine of your choice.
Change the search engine for a single search
- Tap the search engine icon in the address bar.
- Select the search engine you want to use for this search.
This will not change your default search engine.
Edit search settings
- Tap the search engine icon in the address bar.
- Tap Search Settings.
- Under the Suggestions from search engines section toggle any of the following settings:
- 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.
- Under the Address bar – Firefox suggest section toggle any of the following settings:
- 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 synchronized tabs: Search tabs that you have synchronized from another copy of Firefox using Firefox Sync.
- Under the Address bar preferences section toggle any of the following settings:
- 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.
- Show voice search: Display the microphone icon to be able to perform a web search using voice.
- Autocomplete URLs: Autocomplete website addresses entered into the address bar.
Add a search engine
- Tap the search engine icon in the address bar.
- Tap Search Settings.
- Tap Default search engine.
- Tap Add search engine.
- Provide a name for the search engine in the designated Name text field. Then, input the URL for the search string in the Search string URL field. Optionally, include a URL for the Search Suggestion API, and tap .
- If the search string URL is flagged as invalid, an error message will display to help you provide a valid URL. Please be sure to replace the query string with “%s”, for example: https://www.google.com/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
- Tap the search engine icon in the address bar.
- Tap Search Settings.
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- Tap Manage search shortcuts.
- Select the engines you want to have visible in the search menu.
