Google to let Indian users choose default search engine on Android Phones: Here's what it means

Google Default Search Engine: Google has finally decided to let Indian users choose the default search engines on Android-based smartphones. The decision comes after the search engine giant failed to get a court order to block an antitrust ruling. 

For the uninitiated, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) slapped a Rs 1,337.76 crore fine on Google. The fine was slapped for exploiting its dominant position in the Android operating system. There's another penalty of Rs 936 crore on the company in a case related to its Play Store policies.

Android powers 97 per cent of around 60 crore smartphones in India. 

What will change after this?

As of now, one gets a lot of pre-installed apps on Google devices. After this development, users will have the freedom to install apps of their choice. Also, users in India will now have the option to choose their default search engine.

As per the changes, original equipment manufacturers or smartphone makers will now have the liberty to select individual Google apps for pre-installation on their devices. So far smartphone makers getting licenses from Google for its Android system have to agree with mandatory pre-installation of its apps. 

How to set the default search engine

Users will be able to choose their default search engine via a choice screen that will soon start to appear when a user sets up a new Android smartphone or tablet in India.

What forced Google to take this decision

The CCI said that licensing of Google's Play Store must not be linked with the requirement of pre-installation of its related apps and users must have the freedom to get apps like YouTube, Google Maps and Chrome Browser uninstalled.