Just tried this. I have "home" and "work" defined in Saved Places, but if I go to the search bar there are "home" and "work" options which claim not to be set up and won't work until I turn on "web and app history". Hmm.

On iOS, location history absolutely was not required for this. Either its different on android google maps, or you're conflating web and app activity with location history.

Google Maps used to display a message "please log in to see recent searches" or something like this. Which is ridiculous, there's nothing preventing them from storing search history on the device.

It was really annoying, because there is no back button in the app, so if you search for your hotel, then for a restaurant, and then want to show the hotel again, you had to type the full address again.

They seem to have stopped doing that, it's now possible to use Google Maps on iOS without signing in, and you still see recent searches.

They still display a message "sign in to get better search results". And a second message: "Add your phone contacts to search for their addresses". But it's a lot better than it used to be.

Nonetheless, I actually don’t enjoy seeing my search history accumulate on my device. Half of my searches are just spell checks anyway, the next 40% are just wikipedia shortcuts. Probably less than one in ten searches are genuine queries, to scour for a real result.

The number is small enough that I pretty much can directly remember the thing I was thinking about, and why I searched for it. I don’t even want my device saving my recent searches.

Your preference is not very relevant for people that need to remember their searches though.

Let's not talk past each other. An app can remember preferences and searches locally, without synchronizing them to a central server. Requiring that the server remembers those searches only if you agree to having your activity tracked is a dark pattern.

Which is what we are talking about.

And this is very much still present in the latest version on my iPhone anyway. I still see a big prompt to turn on Web & App Activity I order to “Get the most from Maps” — which includes saving “Work” and “Home” favorites. Boo :-(

You don't see that prompt if you aren't signed in.

Son of a .... &%$!

This is about location search history in Google Maps, though, not general search history. Personally, I rarely need the latter but I find the former very useful.