Following the unveil at I/O 2025, Google is beginning to let AI Mode users share their camera in Search Live.
Back in May, Google announced that it was bringing “Project Astra’s live capabilities into Search.” Similar to the Gemini app experience, this lets you have a back-and-forth conversation with Google Search over voice and video. The first aspect entered testing in June.
Those enrolled in Search Labs are now seeing camera input with a new button in the fullscreen Search Live interface. When Video is active, the top portion of your screen above the four-color arc turns into a viewfinder. Another nice design detail is how the arc dips down when Search Live is issuing its response.
You can access Search Live from the bottom-right corner of an AI Mode conversation, or the top of the Google app beneath the Search field. Afterwards, tap “Video” between the Mute/microphone and Transcript (which still takes you to a text chat instead of overlaying text in real-time).
Search Live is also available from Google Lens as part of a small redesign that switches to a fullscreen viewfinder. The solid portion at the bottom is now a pill with Search, Translate, and Live. (Homework has been replaced.) Tapping launches Search Live directly to an active camera compared to the other voice-first activation methods.
We’re seeing Search Live’s camera mode on several US accounts enrolled in the Labs experiment with the latest Google app stable (16.28) and beta (16.29) versions on Android.
Old vs. new
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