Question for everyone: What would be the minimum requirements for a mobile Kagi app?
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Add a mobile Kagi app with quick search widget for Apple and Android
- Search widget with a bar and quick actions such as "Assistant", "Images", "News", etc.
- Optimally: A native Assistant UI designed for mobile with the same levels of responsiveness you'd find in other chat apps. like ChatGPT
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I don't believe that an app exclusively for Kagi search should be particularly complicated, if its express purpose is to answer quick queries like the Google app. If anything, the simpler the better — the app should be fast and easy to navigate first and foremost, even if it's at the expense of easy accessibility to more niche or granular Kagi/browser features which might otherwise clutter or slow down the experience. After all, the purpose of the app would not be to be people's main phone browser.
Yeah, I agree that basic search, images, & news would be a minimum requirement.
Though I believe that highlighting text and being able to search Kagi for that would be something to consider for faster searching. Example of the menu I mean shown below:
Source
- A search widget with search suggestions that opens in my default browser
- All UI elements of the app should respect my OS wide dark-mode setting
- Being able to set the OS wide default search engine as per the DMA
Maybe quick access to the AI assistant features would be nice. Either in the app, or by replacing Google Assistant? Not sure. Other than a search widget, I don't really need the app to do much. The actual browsing of the results should be in my default web browser
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I got my Pixel 6 updated with the latest Android update.
With it, it ask to choose a search engine:
A kagi app would be cool to be able to select kagi as a default search engine on Android.
I already made an app for Kagi where you can share links to the summarizer, because some users suggested it.
So probably you should integrate that too
It would be great if the app on iOS also supported the newly added action button (on iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max) via Shortcut option, so that you could launch search directly by holding the action button on the side. Even better if it would start listening for speech and convert that to a text query and run the search, after a short pause when user stops speaking. For older iPhones it would just be available via shortcuts integration.
I believe Google's Assistant app does support this, but I cannot confirm as it is not available in my country. With ChatGPT app you can start a voice conversation.
Google Pixel Launcher now allows for custom search engines, at least in the EU. Would love to be able to use Kagi here as well, not just in the phones browser.
Some information here: https://www.androidpolice.com/pixel-launcher-change-default-search-engine/
User will be able to use Kagi directly from their phones home screen without having to go via a browser. This will put Kagi search right at the front and be much more accessible from the default Pixel Launcher.
This has been discussed a bit in here, where we discuss the MVP requirements for a Kagi mobile app. I and others have mentioned "Being able to set the OS wide default search engine as per the DMA" which is pretty much the same as your suggestion.
Feel free to upvote it.
https://kagifeedback.org/d/616-add-a-mobile-kagi-app-with-quick-search-widget-for-apple-and-android/24
jaranflaath Hey, thank you for the suggestion. I'll merge your thread with the existing one. We're currently studying the possibility for a Kagi Android application 
Merged 3 posts from Android Pixel Launcher custom search engine.
I was surprised to find that my stock Pixel phone was asking me to "Choose (my) search engine :
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Sadly no kagi option was available :
Just hoping that kagi will get there !!
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I actually think its because Kagi does not have any mobile search application, because when you look closely, every single search engine you can pick from that list actually does have dedicated mobile search and/or browser* app.
*Not sure about browser app tho
Merged 2 posts from No kagi on android Search Engine Selector (EU).
Luis Great 
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8 days later
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Hi @davidetogni and all.
The reason your Pixel phone is prompting you with that screen is because you're a European user, and the European Union is forcing Google to give users a choice through the DMA:
https://www.android.com/choicescreen/dma/
Unfortunately, as you just witnessed, Google has pulled another trick from their hat to "comply without actually complying".
The obvious, low-effort and well-intended way to approach this would've been to allow people to choose from a list of actual search engines (e.g.: websites that accept search queries), as well as add new ones by entering a simple %s search string. They already do this in Chrome desktop for instance.
Instead, what they're doing is making people choose from a list of "search apps". As we all know (and Kagi is a good example of this), very few companies are going to develop a standalone "search" app. What they typically do is develop their own web browser, which then integrates their search engine into it. This is what the likes of DuckDuckGo, Brave and others are doing, and Google knows this very well.
As a result, if a user wants to switch to a different search engine:
- It needs to have an app (many like Kagi do not)
- Even if it does, the user now needs to open their search results in that web browser as well, meaning they're pretty much switching to a different web browser for 50% or more of their mobile usage. They likely don't want to do that.
Or... they can of course keep Google as their default search engine, which coincidentally does respect your default browser choice and will open your search results in Firefox, for instance.
What do you think most users will do?
It's a clear dick move by Google, and I've already submitted feedback to the European Commission. I know they're looking into some violations of the DMA in both Google a Apple's recent changes, so I really hope they look into this as well.
So right now, our options are:
- Wait for Kagi to develop and submit a standalone search app that's accepted into Google's list
- Wait for the EU to force Google to implement a proper search engine choice screen, rather than an app choice screen.
- Switch to a different launcher (e.g.: Nova Launcher) that allows you to fully customize the search bar to use whatever search engine you like. This has the (small) drawback of gesture-based navigation not being 100% smooth the way it is in the native Pixel Launcher, but I've ended up switching to it as I'm fed up of Google's practices to prevent us from using competing services. Plus you get so many more features and customization.
I hope this helps everyone understand the situation and Kagi better assess whether it's worth pursuing a simple search app or not!
What's the problem? A search app can open your results in your default browser and all is good. I think most people will prefer to have a separate app to try out a paid search engine, rather than dedicate themselves at once.
In iOS, most search apps use the built in Safari webview to open URLs, for example Instagram, Google Maps, Perplexity. That would be an excellent solution for a Kagi app, in my opinion.
5 days later
Besides being a good way to garner more attention, I think a dedicated search/browser app would be a great way to bring all of Kagi's features front and center. Having stuff like the summarizer just a click away on the toolbar would be wonderful. Plus the auto complete you get when using the website directly (instead of the URL bar) is much nicer. It would be really cool to get that all the time.
Before I used Kagi, I was all about using the dedicated duckduckgo browser because it was simple to use and had the "burn" feature which cleared all my browse history with a cool fire animation. (My smooth brain likes that kind of stuff). I would love for Kagi to just do that but put their own spin on it.
Lastly, while I can set my Firefox mobile app to use kagi, it is just a custom search engine which doesn't pull the favicon. So it is just an ugly "k" with no graphics. It's lame. I like pretty things.