Gemini Integration For Reddit Answers Brings Everyone's Favorite Google Search Trick Full Circle

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Summary

Reddit, after initially promoting its own AI search tool and seeing Google distance its AI from the platform, is now integrating Google’s Gemini into its Reddit Answers feature.
The integration of Gemini via Google’s Vertex AI aims to improve the relevance and quality of search results within Reddit, providing users with curated summaries and links to community discussions to encourage them to stay on the platform.
Reddit Answers intends to prioritize answers based on genuine human experiences and community insights, potentially offering a different perspective compared to SEO-driven results from traditional search engines.

is having a full-circle moment. The platform, which, up until very recently, wanted you to use its own conversational AI tool in favor of Googling things with the word ‘Reddit’ after them, is now leveraging Gemini to power a “part of its search capabilities.”

Oh, and Reddit isn’t the only one coming full circle. In July last year, Google began distancing Gemini and AI Overviews from Reddit by significantly reducing their reliance on the platform for sourcing information and answers for user queries. Now, the very same AI tool is being integrated into Reddit, bringing the two platforms closer than ever.

Announced by Google Cloud in a blog post today, Gemini will make its way to Reddit’s AI assistant (Reddit Answers) via Vertex AI, Google’s AI platform that lets developers build and use models.

While the full scope is currently unclear, integrating Gemini should result in users being able to find more relevant Reddit posts and curated summaries, complete with “links to communities and posts.” The tool’s main aim is to encourage users to stay on the platform, and that’s only possible by making search as seamless as it is on Google. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, right?

Ask away!

For reference, Reddit’s conversational AI assistant, Reddit Answers, entered beta in December 2024, and it is currently limited to iOS and web Reddit users in the US and Canada. Logged-in Reddit users can question the tool 20 times per day, while logged-out visitors can ask up to 10 questions per week. Premium users, on the other hand, can ask up to 100 questions per day.

Reddit Answers could be a beneficial AI tool for users that prioritize answers sourced from real human experiences and insight over answers pushed via SEO tactics. By leveraging Gemini to analyze and present said insights and human experiences, and its ability to answer follow-up questions, Reddit’s AI tool has the potential to present nuanced takes that might have been missed by traditional search engines.