Google AI Mode Testers Can Now Search What They See

The new AI Mode that launched in limited preview in Google Search last month is getting new visual search capabilities today. The company is also expanding its availability to more Google One AI Premium subscribers in the US.

AI Mode lets Google users ask complex, multi-part questions right from the search engine. The generative AI feature completes the AI Overviews that Google is currently testing in select markets, and it uses a custom version of the company’s Gemini 2.0 model. AI Mode is also conversational and lets users ask follow-up questions to dig deeper into a topic.

“On average, AI Mode queries are twice as long as traditional Search queries on Google,” explained Robby Stein VP of Product, Google Search. “People are using AI Mode for help with exploratory and open-ended questions, along with more complicated tasks — like comparing two products, exploring how-tos and planning a trip.”

Thanks to new multimodal capabilities launching today, AI Mode testers can now upload a picture or take a photo and ask Google questions about them. AI Mode leverages Google’s Lens technology to identify what’s in a picture, with the custom version of Gemini running multiple queries to provide a comprehensive answer about the image. Responses will also include additional links to get more information about it.

“AI Mode can understand the entire scene in an image, including the context of how objects relate to one another and their unique materials, colors, shapes and arrangements,” Stein said. “The result is a response that’s incredibly nuanced and contextually relevant, so you take the next step.”

AI Mode is currently only available in the Google app for Android and iOS, and only for Google One AI Premium subscribers. The experimental feature first needs to be enabled in the Google Labs portal, and Google said today that “millions more Labs users” in the US should have access to it now.