Google Search stopped returning local app results

quintron

Folks,
Perplexed by a recent development with Google Now/Search on my Galaxy Note 2.
I use it to search local apps on phone daily.
A few days back it stopped showing apps in search results.

I had a quick look and as you can see from the attached image, apps are checked but greyed out. I've force closed, cleared cache, rebooted, checked and unchecked the apps checkbook to no avail. I'm not rooted, running nova launcher and haven't been messing with any file systems etc. I have the usual task killers installed but have had the same setup for months with no issues. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance for any advice!

Image:

IrishStuff09

IIRC, they don't show anymore because Apple have a patent for "finding apps through search" or something like that, as you can with Spotlight search on iOS. They had a lawsuit against Google and they removed it in Jelly Bean (I think).

Peregrine

I don't know anything about that patent IrishStuff09 but it's still working for me on my S3 Mini running 4.1 though.

quintron

IrishStuff09 wrote: »

IIRC, they don't show anymore because Apple have a patent for "finding apps through search" or something like that, as you can with Spotlight search on iOS. They had a lawsuit against Google and they removed it in Jelly Bean (I think).

Well it was working for me on JB for months... And that's a pretty big deal imho. I'm surprised I haven't heard anything about that through feeds and podcasts and websites of late... So, Is it greyed out for all Android JB users??

donspeekinglesh

Looks the same for me. Running a recent CM nightly.
Though I've had device search disabled for ages - found it really slowed the launch of Google Now

quintron

So, just to be clear donspeekinglish, running CM you can't access your apps via Google search?
I'm still amazed I haven't heard about this.
I did multiple (laptop) google searches for this issue and returned nothing which indicated that this was pulled from local search.
I relied on it heavily with Nova using a pinch gesure to bring up the now/search and get at an app.
I realize that this may not be the way people normally bring up apps, but for me its the quickest and what I'm use to.
I've read no news, opinion pieces on it online etc which is surprising.

Is it the same for everyone running JB?
You can't find an app on your phone using Google Search and/or apps check-box is greyed out under settings (just the apps logo is grey, not the check-mark)
Would appreciate all who can check!
Thanks.
Q

Atomic Pineapple

I'm on 4.3 with a Nexus 4 and it works fine for me, the apps icon is grey in the settings but the option isn't greyed out, I can select it on and off and the search brings up apps as I type into the search bar.

I've attached to screen shot to make sure this is what you mean.

quintron

Gah! This is really annoying me. Any supreme android super people out there willing to take a stab at helping me get this resolved? I have root now (totally unrelated as this was happening for at least a week or 10 days before this) and don't mind getting my hands dirty. Google (ironically) has turned up nothing..

quintron

I installed Googles Gesture Control which is a decent stop gap measure ..but still no joy on apps showing up in results. Does anyone have any advice? Cheers all.