Control your privacy series. How to instantly “Delete last 15 min” of your Chrome history on Android or iPhone

What happens on your smartphone is your private business and should stay like that. If you browse the internet mostly on your phone, your history builds up quickly. Stop snoopers viewing your whereabouts and delete your browsing history for an extra layer of privacy.

Google’s automatic systems could already be set to delete your web history after three, 18 or 36 months, but did you know you can delete the last 15 minutes of your browsing with just 2 taps? This could be particularly useful in specific scenarios. For example, if you’ve been researching gifts for your significant other and don’t want them to see what you’ve been up to on your phone.

How to delete your very recent browsing history on your smartphone

On Android:

• Open Chrome, tap the three-dot menu in the top right
• Choose “Clear browsing data.” “Last 15 minutes” should be the default, but you can tap this menu to change the time range of deletion.
• Then, just hit “Clear data.” You’ll see a “Last 15 minutes cleared” alert appear to confirm.

On iPhone:

• Open the Google app on your iPhone.
• Tap your profile icon on the top-right of the page.
• Tap “Delete last 15 min.”

That’s it! You’ve cleared anything you’ve searched in the last 15 minutes.

Privacy tip: To level up your privacy, tap the “Search history” button and set it to auto-delete every three months, or use a VPN to shield all your web and app activities.

If you are curious to see your digital footprint at a glance, get alerts in case of breaches exposing you and protect and manage your data (not only devices), consider getting Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection.