Learn How To Clear Browsing History On Android In Two Easy Ways

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Do you want to know how to clear browsing data on your Android device? Whether you’re using the phone’s built-in browser or another one, such as Chrome, you can clear your browsing history quickly and easily.

We’ve put together an easy guide to help you learn how to clear browsing data on your Android phone using Google Chrome or Samsung Internet. Read on to see how it’s done. 

How To Delete Your Browser History On Android

Android devices have a variety of browsers that you can use. Besides their default browsers, there’s also Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera Mini, and more that you can download from the Google Play Store. 

After using these browsers, you create a browsing history on your device. Now while many people think you only need to delete browsing history if you’ve got something to hide, that’s not always the case.

When you delete browsing history, you can free up space and protect your personal data. That’s why it’s good to clear your browsing data every once in a while. 

While the process of clear browsing data for different browsers may be similar, they are not the same. For this guide, I’ll demonstrate how to clear data using the Chrome app, and Samsung’s browser. However, these steps can also be applied to other browsers, such as the Firefox browser.

Clear Browsing History Using Chrome App

One of the many browsers that Android users utilize is the Google Chrome app. It comes standard on many Android devices and offers a host of benefits over the device’s native browser. 

One of those is the ability to sync your history and bookmarks across devices with Google Chrome. 

Here’s how to clear your browsing history for Google Chrome:

  1. Open Google Chrome on your Android phone and tap the three vertical dots on the top right of the screen. 
Three vertical dots on the upper right corner of a Google Chrome android app
  1. In the pop-up menu that’s displayed, tap History to access your History settings
Tapping history menu to access history settings
  1. On the History page, you’ll see a list of all the sites you’ve previously visited. You can remove the sites one by one by long pressing on them and then tapping the bin icon on the right of the screen.
Tap the trash bin icon on the upper right corner to delete a specific browsing data
  1. However, to delete history at once, tap Clear Browsing data to begin deleting your Chrome browsing history.
Tapping clear browsing data to begin deleting your browsing history
  1. When you’re about to delete your Chrome browsing history, you will see two tabs: Basic and Advanced. 

The Basic option covers the app’s browsing history, cookies, and site data, as well as cached images and files. The Advanced option deals with Saved passwords and autofill form data. 

Basic and Advanced screen options in clearing your browsing history
  1. For this tutorial, I will stick to the Basic setting. At the top of the Basic page, you will see a time range option, tap it to view the time ranges available and select the one that you want to use. 
Selecting the specific time range of your choice in the Basic settings
  1. Once you’ve selected your time range, tap Clear data.
Tapping clear data to erase the selected options
  1. Next, you’ll see a popup menu with websites that Chrome believes are important. You can deselect anyone you don’t want to be deleted or keep them all selected so they’ll be deleted when you clear your browser history

When you’re finished tap clear data again.

Tap Clear to finalize deletion of the selected browsing history
  1. There you have it, you’ve successfully cleared your Chrome browsing history.
Successfully cleared browsing history

Here’s our video showing you how to delete browsing data on the Chrome app:

YouTube player

If you want to learn more about Google Chrome, I recommend learning how to reset Chrome settings. It’ll help you fix any issues you’re having with the app.

Clear Browser Data On Samsung Internet

As mentioned before, Android devices often have their own native browsers that they can use to surf the web. One example of a native browser is Samsung Internet

This is Samsung’s default browser and quite capable in my opinion. I often use it more than Google Chrome as it’s intuitive, easy to use, and doesn’t take up a lot of memory.

Deleting your Samsung browsing history is fairly straightforward too. It takes fewer steps than doing it on Chrome, as it doesn’t offer as many options, but that makes it work for more people. 

You can easily tap clear browsing data on the History page and your browsing data is gone. 

Here’s a step-by-step of how it’s done:

  1. Open the Samsung Internet app and tap the three horizontal lines in the bottom right of the screen. 
Samsung Internet browser app locating the three horizontal lines at the bottom right of the screen
  1. Tap History in the popup menu to access the app’s History settings.
History option in a pop up menu to access History settings
  1. On the history page, tap the three vertical dots in the top right of the screen. 
Three vertical dots on the upper right corner for more options
  1. Tap Clear History to clear your browsing history.
Tapping clear history to clear browsing history
  1. You’ve successfully deleted your Samsung browsing history.
No browsing history data after successful deletion of browsing history in Samsung mobile phone

For an alternate demonstration, here’s a video showing you how to clear browsing data on Samsung Internet:

YouTube player

FAQs

Should I clear browsing history on Android?

You should clear browsing history on Android. While you may not be hiding anything, which is what many people think deleting internet history is for; clearing your history can improve performance, free up space and improve your phone’s security. Therefore, you should clear your browsing data every now and then.

Does clearing history delete everything?

Clearing history does not delete everything. While it does remove web addresses you’ve visited and therefore shortcuts to those pages, the data can still be accessed through extra effort. However, the likelihood of someone doing that is very slim, so deleting your history is still a safe bet.

Delete Search History On Android – Wrapping Up

How’d you like this guide?

To be honest, when someone asks you how to delete their browsing history, it might make you wonder what they’re hiding. However, as you’ve seen, it’s good practice to clear your browsing history every once in a while. 

Clearing your browsing data is a simple process, whether you’re using an app such as Google Chrome or a native Android browser like Samsung Internet.

Besides your browsers, you can also clear browsing data in the Google Play Store. Read my guide on how to delete search history for Google Play Store

If you’ve got an iPhone and you’re wondering how to clear browsing data on it, check out this clear browsing data guide for iPhone. Similar to this article, it’ll show you how to clear your browsing history for your iPhone with clear and easy-to-follow steps.
Be sure to ask any questions you have in the comments below. Also, don’t forget to share it with your friends, family, and followers. Let them learn how to tap clear browsing data and delete the browser history on their mobile device. 

About The Author

  • Judy Sanhz

    I can never get enough of tech in general, whether it's Android or web apps but helping others solve their tech problems also brings great satisfaction. I carry a device wherever I go, and I'm always connected. Life without the Internet just sounds too scary to me. 🙂

Photo of author

Judy Sanhz

I can never get enough of tech in general, whether it's Android or web apps but helping others solve their tech problems also brings great satisfaction. I carry a device wherever I go, and I'm always connected. Life without the Internet just sounds too scary to me. :-)

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