Android phone users mostly stick to Google’s services which includes Gmail, Google Maps and of course,
Google Search. Despite having options to use a search engine or maps of some other service provider, people mostly tend to stick to the ones provided by Google as it easily gets the job done. Now, this makes it difficult for Google’s competitors to make Android users try their services. Microsoft
is now using a clever trick to make Android users try its Bing search
engine instead of Google Search. As pointed out by a post on the Pixel Phone Help page, if you have installed the Outlook app on your Android phone then Microsoft is cleverly making you search things on Bing irrespective of whether you have installed Bing on your Android phone or not. “I noticed over the last few days that long press on text in Android now also includes a "Bing Search" option. I don't have the Bing app installed. Only Microsoft app I have on my phone is Outlook. Anyone know what is going on?” wrote a user named Ilija on the help page.
So, the moment you open the Outlook app to check an email and if you long press on a word in the email text, a pop-up menu will appear with three options: Web Search, Translate and Bing Search. Now the third option-- Bing Search-- makes it interesting as it appears even if you do not have Bing installed on your phone.
In other words, Microsoft is promoting Bing search within its
Outlook Android
app and it is not illegal. But the problem is people are not happy about it and considers this move by Microsoft as a desperate attempt to get Android users try out Bing.
Google allows developers to add options when words are selected inside apps. And it is up to the developers as to what options they want to add. For Outlook, Microsoft thought it would be a good thing to promote Bing search instead of offering any other choice to users. So, how to get rid of this Bing search feature on the Outlook app? Well, there’s no easy way and you will have to remove Outlook from your phone.