Google App Preps For Search's AI Mode With A New Selection Of Shortcuts (APK Teardown)

Ryan Haines / Android Authority

TL;DR

Google could offer users a new selection of shortcuts under the Search bar in a future release of the Google app.
We’ve spotted an early version of the revamped UI with three instead of four shortcuts.
The new shortcuts could give users quick access to Search’s upcoming AI Mode, Voice Search, and Lens.

The Google app could soon get a minor UI change in preparation for the upcoming AI Mode for Google Search. Google appears to be working on offering users a different selection of shortcuts under the Search bar, which includes one for the conversational search experience.

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An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.

Currently, the home page of the Google app on Android and iOS features four shortcut buttons under the Search bar. These shortcuts let you quickly perform an image search, translate text, get help with homework, or perform a song search. However, we’ve spotted a new selection of shortcuts that could replace these options in the latest beta of the Google Home app (version 16.6.23).

As you can see in the attached screenshots, the updated home page features three slightly larger shortcut buttons under the Search bar. The second and third shortcuts appear to be the same as the Voice Search and Lens shortcuts already available within the Search bar. Although the icon in the first shortcut resembles the icon Google uses for Gemini Live, we believe it could launch Search’s upcoming AI Mode.

In addition to this icon featuring two more vertical lines than the Gemini Live icon, we’ve spotted code that refers to this shortcut as “Search Live.” This is likely an alternate name for the in-development AI Mode, which, as we recently reported, could have a different icon altogether.

Given this inconsistency and the fact that the updated home page features duplicate shortcuts for Voice Search and Lens, we suspect this UI could undergo further changes. We’ll keep an eye on future developments and update this post as soon as we have more details.

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