Google AI Mode Released: How to Access It Now
Read in other languages:
Google's current AI Overviews in Search are still limited compared to more robust alternatives like ChatGPT. To bridge this gap, Google has launched AI Mode—an experimental feature designed for power users, delivering enhanced reasoning and more in-depth insights. Here's how you can test it out now.
What's AI Mode in the First Place?
Google describes AI Mode as a more advanced version of AI Overviews, which has been part of Search for some time. The key difference is that AI Mode runs on a more powerful model with improved reasoning abilities, while keeping the multimodal input support. This allows it to handle a wider range of queries while generating AI-powered responses.
One of AI Mode’s standout features is its ability to engage in conversation-like interactions, enabling users to ask follow-up questions or make multiple queries within the same context. It also understands nuances in questions, producing more accurate responses—especially for complex queries that would typically require multiple searches. This makes it particularly useful for product comparisons and other detailed inquiries.
Additionally, AI Mode prioritizes factual accuracy by pulling from high-quality web sources and conducting a deeper web search than standard AI Overviews.
The most noticeable difference between AI Mode and traditional Google Search is its presentation style. Instead of listing web links, AI Mode delivers results in an organized chat window, often structuring responses in tables or categorized sections when applicable. However, when the AI lacks confidence in its response, web links will still be displayed.
How to Access and Use Google Search AI Mode
AI Mode is currently available as an experimental feature in Google's Search Labs for Google One AI Premium subscribers. If you're not yet subscribed, Google offers a free one-month trial, with billing starting only after your trial ends. Keep in mind, you'll still need to join the waitlist and wait for approval before you can use AI Mode.
If you've already gained access, here's how you can easily enable and start using AI Mode on your Android device, iPhone, or iPad:
- Open the Google app.
- Tap the Search button or go to the Search tab.
- Select AI Mode to enable it.
- Enter your query via text or voice, then hit Send.
- If you have already made a standard search, tap AI Mode to instantly perform an AI search.
- To ask a follow-up question, simply tap the search bar and enter your query.
AI Mode is also accessible on desktop and other platforms through the web version via google.com/aimode.
Since AI Mode is still experimental, Google mentions it might occasionally give incomplete answers. The company also plans to add image-based searches to AI Mode in the future.
A fully AI-powered Google search was always inevitable, and AI Mode feels like a step toward integrating a web-based version of Gemini directly into Search. As AI keeps evolving, we can expect even more overlap between these tools.
Have you tried AI Mode yet? What do you think of Google’s new AI Mode? Share your thoughts in the comments!
