There is now a multimodal Google Lens search option in Google AI Mode

AI Mode, which entered its testing phase a month ago, is now seeing a broader rollout by Google. Initially limited to Google One AI Premium subscribers, the company is now making this powerful feature available to a wider audience, including millions of users in the U.S. who are part of Google Labs but not paying for the premium tier. This marks a significant expansion, allowing more users to experience advanced AI capabilities without any subscription cost.

Alongside this broader availability, Google is enhancing AI Mode with new features such as multimodal input and advanced image understanding. Users can now interact with AI Mode by either capturing a new photo using Google Lens or uploading an existing image. This update allows for more intuitive and visually driven search interactions, enabling users to ask complex, detailed questions about what they’re seeing in the image. Whether it’s identifying objects, exploring their purpose, or getting contextual recommendations, the process is becoming more seamless and intelligent.

Google is leveraging the advanced multimodal technology of its Gemini AI to enable these capabilities. This allows the AI to not just recognize objects in an image, but to comprehend the entire visual context — including the relationships between objects, their textures, colors, forms, and how they’re arranged in the scene. For instance, in a practical use case shared by Google, AI Mode was able to accurately recognize all the books on a shelf, understand their themes, and generate a list of similar high-rated books with links to explore or buy. Users can also ask follow-up questions for deeper insights or personalized suggestions.

Starting today, this new AI Mode experience with Google Lens is being rolled out on both Android and iOS platforms. Users can access it by visiting the AI Mode homepage, where a new Lens icon appears in the bottom search bar. Tapping on it leads to the familiar Google Lens interface. By long-pressing the shutter button, users can speak their questions directly to the AI.

Additionally, Google shared insights from the first month of testing. Many users appreciate the minimalistic interface, quick response times, and the AI’s ability to comprehend layered and intricate questions. Interestingly, the average length of AI Mode queries is reported to be double that of traditional Google Search queries. People are increasingly using this tool for in-depth exploration, including product comparisons, how-to guides, and trip planning, showing that AI Mode is quickly becoming a go-to assistant for more thoughtful and complex tasks.