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AppSearch
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AppSearch, an on-device indexing and structured search engine, was shipped as
an APEX in Android 12. In Android
13, AppSearch is shipped as a Mainline module.
Motivation
To ensure a consistent implementation of AppSearch across the Android ecosystem
and support updateability.
Benefits:
- Allow updating AppSearch via Play Store
- Ensure compliance with the AppSearch CDD requirements
Details
- Data collected through AppSearch APIs remains on the user's device
(except aggregated metrics data, which is used for performance optimization
purposes).
- A fast, mobile-first storage implementation with low I/O use
- Highly efficient indexing and querying over large data sets
- Multi-language support, such as English, Spanish and CJKT
- Relevance ranking and usage scoring
AppSearch architecture
Figure 1 highlights AppSearch concepts as well as the system service
process boundary.
Figure 1. AppSearch module architecture
Module boundary
Refer to the module architecture diagram in Figure 1.
The main functions of this module are included in the APEX package
com.android.appsearch.
Dependencies
- libicu
- libprotobuf-cpp-lite
- ndk
Customization
This module is not customizable.
Content and code samples on this page are subject to the licenses described in the Content License. Java and OpenJDK are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Last updated 2025-06-12 UTC.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-06-12 UTC."],[],[],null,["# AppSearch, an on-device indexing and structured search engine, was shipped as\nan APEX in Android 12. In Android\n13, AppSearch is shipped as a Mainline module.\n\nMotivation\n----------\n\nTo ensure a consistent implementation of AppSearch across the Android ecosystem\nand support updateability.\n\nBenefits:\n\n- Allow updating AppSearch via Play Store\n- Ensure compliance with the AppSearch CDD requirements\n\nDetails\n-------\n\n- Data collected through AppSearch APIs remains on the user's device (except aggregated metrics data, which is used for performance optimization purposes).\n- A fast, mobile-first storage implementation with low I/O use\n- Highly efficient indexing and querying over large data sets\n- Multi-language support, such as English, Spanish and CJKT\n- Relevance ranking and usage scoring\n\nAppSearch architecture\n----------------------\n\nFigure 1 highlights AppSearch concepts as well as the system service\nprocess boundary.\n\n**Figure 1.** AppSearch module architecture\n\nModule boundary\n---------------\n\n- AppSearch Mainline Apex - `com.android.appsearch`\n\n - AppSearch API surface (Java)\n - Code Location: `frameworks/base/apex/appsearch/framework`\n - Process: \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eBOOT_CLASS_PATH\u003c/var\u003e\n - AppSearchManagerService (Java)\n - Code Location: `frameworks/base/apex/appsearch/service`\n - Process: system_server\n - Icing Native library (C++)\n - Code Location: `external/icing`\n - Process: system_server\n- HAL Interface/Implementations (C++)\n\n - N/A\n\nRefer to the module architecture diagram in Figure 1.\n\nPackage format\n--------------\n\nThe main functions of this module are included in the APEX package\n`com.android.appsearch`.\n\nDependencies\n------------\n\n- libicu\n- libprotobuf-cpp-lite\n- ndk\n\nCustomization\n-------------\n\nThis module is not customizable."]]
