Edit: Automated app to enable this is done: https://github.com/zhuowei/UnleashTheGoogle
Google Quick Search Box contains some debug features that can only be enabled through a special debug option. Annoyingly, the Google search team decided to use a custom ProtoBuf based shared preferences file instead of the standard XML based preferences. We can still edit it though!
Here's how you do it. 1: get a rooted device. 2: pull the /data/data/com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox/app_shared_prefs/StartupSettings.bin file to a desktop computer.
To do that:
First, get ADB access (use the search engine of your choice to figure out this). Then run:
adb shell` su cp /data/data/com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox/app_shared_prefs/StartupSettings.bin /sdcard/` exit` exit` adb pull /sdcard/StartupSettings.bin
Now you should have a StartupSettings.bin file. Then, edit the file with a hex editor. You should see something like this.
00000000 0A 14 0A 10 73 65 74 74 69 6E 67 73 5F 76 65 72 ....settings_ver 00000010 73 69 6F 6E 20 06 0A 35 0A 31 75 73 65 72 5F 63 sion ..5.1user_c 00000020 61 6E 5F 72 75 6E 5F 74 68 65 5F 67 6F 6F 67 6C an_run_the_googl 00000030 65 5F 61 6E 64 72 65 77 77 69 67 67 69 6E 61 6C e_ 00000040 74 40 67 6D 61 69 6C 2E 63 6F 6D 20 01 0A 22 0A ..". 00000050 1E 61 6E 79 5F 61 63 63 6F 75 6E 74 5F 63 61 6E .any_account_can 00000060 5F 72 75 6E 5F 74 68 65 5F 67 6F 6F 67 6C 65 20 _run_the_google 00000070 01 0A 17 0A 10 6C 61 73 74 5F 72 75 6E 5F 76 65 .....last_run_ve 00000080 72 73 69 6F 6E 20 9C D1 92 64 0A 40 0A 37 6C 61 rsion ...d.@.7la 00000090 73 74 5F 63 6F 6E 66 69 67 75 72 61 74 69 6F 6E st_configuration 000000A0 5F 73 61 76 65 64 5F 74 69 6D 65 5F 61 6E 64 72 _saved_time_ 000000B0 65 77 77 69 67 67 69 6E 61 6C 74 40 67 6D 61 69 000000C0 6C 2E 63 6F 6D 28 E6 94 89 B2 F2 27 0A 18 0A 14 (.....'.... 000000D0 64 65 62 75 67 5F 66 65 61 74 75 72 65 73 5F 6C debug_features_l 000000E0 65 76 65 6C 20 00 0A 2B 0A 0E 67 6F 6F 67 6C 65 evel ..+..google 000000F0 5F 61 63 63 6F 75 6E 74 32 19 61 6E 64 72 65 77 _account2.andrew 00000100 77 69 67 67 69 6E 61 6C 74 40 67 6D 61 69 6C 2E wigginalt@gmail. 00000110 63 6F 6D com 00000120 00000130 00000140 00000150 00000160 --- StartupSettings.bin --0x0/0x113-------------------------------------
Position the cursor after the space in debug_features_level, and see the highlight in the left panel. It should be 00.
(If you look at the hex view, the byte should be preceded by 6C 65 76 65 6C 20 ("level " in hex)
Change the 00 to 02. (1 = dogfood enable; 2 = team and dogfood enable)
Save, and then push the modified file via ADB:
adb push StartupSettings.bin /sdcard/
adb shell
su
cp /sdcard/StartupSettings.bin /data/data/com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox/app_shared_prefs/
exit
exit
Finally, force close the search box and you should get debug options.
If you want, I can make a program to do this automatically.
What does the debug mode do exactly? Any experimental features?
Edit: nvm, saw the pics on G+.