Updated May 16, 2024

About the choice screen

On September 6, 2023, the European Commission announced that Google had been designated as a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a new piece of legislation designed to ensure fair and open digital markets. To comply with its DMA obligations, Google’s changes to its choice screens include: (i) introduce a new browser choice screen during initial device setup in addition to a search choice screen on Android smartphones and tablets; and (ii) show a search choice screen in Chrome on non-Android platforms. An illustrative version of the search choice screen follows. Providers may vary by country.

Search choice screen on Android

The user is required to choose one search provider from the choice screen during setup. The effect of a user selecting a search provider from the choice screen is to (i) set the search provider in a home screen search box to the selected provider, (ii) set the default search provider in Chrome (if installed) to the selected provider, and (iii) install the search app of the selected provider (if not already installed).

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An Android mobile screen showing a list of search engines in the initial phone setup from which users can select and set their preferred default search engine.

Search choice screen on other platforms

The user is required to choose one search provider from the choice screen during setup of their Chrome installation or profile or after updating to the relevant Chrome version. The search provider selected from the choice screen will be set as the default search engine in Chrome on the device.

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Illustrative visual of the search engine choice screen in Chrome on iOS and desktop.

The Chrome search choice screens will show for new and existing Chrome users on iOS and desktop devices in the EEA.

For more information, please visit android.com/choicescreen/dma.