Google announced Wednesday that it’s making AI functionality easier to access on mobile. Users will now be able to access AI Mode, which allows users to ask advanced questions and continue to dig deeper into a topic directly in Search, via a new dedicated shortcut button below the search bar when opening a New Tab page in Chrome.
The new shortcut for the AI feature in Chrome is rolling out in the US starting Wednesday, and will soon come to 160 new countries and other languages, including Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and more.
By making AI functionality easier to access on mobile, Google is likely hoping that people will use its service instead of navigating competitors’ tools.
The launch of the new shortcut comes as Google recently expanded its AI functionality globally, bringing the 180 new countries. The tech giant also made the feature available in more languages including Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean and Brazilian Portuguese.
Google first launched AI Mode in March to take on popular services like Perplexity AI and OpenAI’s ChatGPT Search. Since then, the tech giant has been constantly updating the tool with additional functionality.
Yesterday, Google rolled out new AI agent features to let users get help booking event tickets and AI beauty and wellness appointments. Google first introduced agent capabilities to its AI feature in August, when it rolled out the ability for users to use the feature to find restaurant reservations.
AI Mode launched a Canvas feature in July that helps you create study plans and organize information across multiple sessions in a sidebar. It also now lets you use Google Lens to ask what’s on your computer screen.
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