Earlier this week, Google introduced “Search Live,” a new feature within its AI Mode that allows users to engage in real-time, voice-based conversations with its search engine. This development transforms the traditional search experience into a dynamic dialogue, enabling users to talk, listen, and explore information in a more natural and interactive way.
Currently available in the United States to users who have opted into the “AI Mode” experiment in Google’s Search Labs, “Search Live” is accessible on both Android and iOS devices. By tapping a new “Live” icon, users can initiate a spoken conversation with Google’s AI.
“Today we’re launching Search Live with voice input in the Google app for Android and iOS,” says Liza Ma, the Director, Product Management, Search at Google. “Available in the U.S. for users enrolled in the AI Mode experiment in Labs, you can now have a free-flowing, back-and-forth voice conversation with Search and explore links from across the web.”
How Does Google’s Search Live Work?
The core of “Search Live” lies in its ability to understand and respond to spoken queries with AI-generated audio responses. This allows for a hands-free search experience, ideal for situations where typing is inconvenient. The system is designed to handle follow-up questions, maintaining the context of the conversation for a more fluid and intuitive exploration of topics.
While providing audio feedback, “Search Live” also presents users with on-screen links to web pages, offering a pathway for deeper investigation into the information presented. This hybrid approach combines the convenience of a voice interface with the depth and breadth of traditional web search results.
Underpinning this new feature is a custom version of Google’s powerful Gemini model, which has been enhanced with advanced voice capabilities. This allows the AI to not only process and understand natural language but also to generate coherent and contextually relevant spoken answers.
The introduction of “Search Live” is a significant step in Google’s broader strategy to integrate generative AI into the core of its search experience. “AI Mode” itself represents a more advanced, end-to-end AI-powered search journey, and “Search Live” is a key component of this vision.
Looking ahead, Google has announced plans to further enhance “Search Live” by integrating camera input. This future capability will allow users to visually present information to the AI, for example, by showing it an object and asking questions about it, further blurring the lines between the digital and physical worlds in the quest for information.