Google is building Search Live into its artificial intelligence mode, which allows you to have a voice conversation with the company’s chatbot right from the search engine. The test, which is currently being rolled out to Labs users in the US, does not currently support camera sharing, but Google plans to add this feature in the “coming months.”
Search Live allows you to interact with a “custom” version of Gemini and search the web in real time. The feature currently exists in Google’s Android and iOS apps, where it takes it one step further by giving you the ability to point the camera at something and ask questions about it out loud.
Last month, Google first announced plans to bring Search Live to AI Mode, an artificial intelligence search feature that just became available to all US residents. It’s part of a larger transformation of Google’s search engine, which is also experimenting with adding podcast-like audio reviews to search results.
You can try Search Live in AI mode by joining the AI Mode experiment in Google Labs. From there, go to the Google app on Android or iOS and tap the new Live Search icon. You can then ask a question out loud, such as, “What are some tips for keeping a linen dress from getting wrinkled in a suitcase?” The AI chatbot will provide an audible response that you can follow up with another question, such as “What should I do if the dress is still wrinkled?” Search Live will also show you relevant links during the conversation.
Other AI companies have also spent time creating voice modes for their AI models: OpenAI launched an advanced voice mode in ChatGPT last year, and Anthropic released a voice mode for its Claude app in May. Apple is also working on “LLM Siri,” but its launch was delayed because the company could not “achieve the desired reliability,” according to Apple’s vice president of software Craig Federighi.
Google says that Search Live works in the background, allowing you to continue the conversation with the chatbot while switching to other applications. You can also tap the “transcript” button to see a text version of the response and respond by typing. Google will save your previous Search Live conversations to your AI history.
