Google AI Mode Now Widely Available, Adds Image Search

Google has announced its new “AI Mode” is now available to more users. However, these users are testers, not the general public, only in the US. That means it is still a limited feature, but Google is expanding what it can do. Today’s announcement also brings the ability to search within an image using Google’s Gemini 2.0 models.

Rolled out last month, AI Mode is a new dedicated tab on Google Search’s homepage. It is an upgrade over the existing AI Overview, tackling questions with better nuance. It works similarly to ChatGPT Search, which uses the internet to curate answers for even complicated questions. However, in Google’s case, AI Mode relies on Gemini 2.0 for all the homework to offer AI-generated responses. Because it is in beta, it requires users to enrol their Google account for access.

The new image search feature leverages Gemini’s multimodal capabilities, Google explained, allowing users to snap and upload images to AI Mode and then ask related questions. “With Gemini’s multimodal capabilities, AI Mode can understand the entire scene in an image, including the context of how objects relate to one another and their unique materials, colours, shapes, and arrangements,” said Google in a blog post.

Other than the web version, the image search functionality will also be available through the Google app on iOS and Android — albeit only to testers in the US. Google said the feature will be available to “millions more Labs users in the US.” It also requires a Google One AI Premium subscription, meaning it will not be available for free when it rolls out to stable users worldwide.

Google also said users have liked the “clean design, fast response time and ability to understand complex and nuanced questions” of the new AI Mode, giving the company confidence to expand the availability in the coming days.

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