Google is bringing its AI-powered conversational search feature Search Live to India, starting in English and Hindi, expanding AI mode to seven new languages in India, and strengthening its presence in one of the fastest growing markets.
Search Live, which was introduced in the US in July, is built on Google’s Project Astra technology and is available through the company’s AI mode. This feature allows users to point their phone’s camera at objects and receive real-time assistance, supporting back-and-forth conversations leveraging visual context from the camera feed.
With this launch, India becomes the second market to introduce Search Live after the US. This is a natural move given the country’s vast AI early adopter base, which has helped Google grow products such as Gemini’s Nano Banana model. Google plans to leverage India’s early adoption to train the system on a broader range of visual contexts and enhance Search Live’s capabilities over time.
“People in India are power users of multimodal search, forming the largest user base for both voice and visual search worldwide,” Hema Budaraju, Google’s vice president of search product management, said in a new blog post.
Search Live begins rolling out to users in India today and will be available to more users in the coming weeks. Once available, users can access it by tapping the “Live” icon below the search bar in the Google app, or by opening Lens and selecting “Live” from the bottom of the screen.
Earlier this year, Google revealed that Search Live is powered by a custom version of Gemini. The Gemini app includes a separate similarly named feature called Gemini Live. This was introduced in May and provides a comparable experience. This duplication can easily confuse some users.
Google has also expanded AI mode to seven Indian languages: Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. This is part of the global expansion of AI Mode, now available in over 35 new languages and 40 new countries and territories, giving you access to the AI-powered search experience in over 200 countries and territories around the world.
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Google’s AI Mode debuted in the US in March and rolled out to more US users in May, allowing users to ask complex, multi-part questions through an AI-powered interface. It was launched in India in June and expanded worldwide in August. Last month, Google added five new languages to the feature, including Hindi, Indonesian, and Japanese.
“The advanced inference and multimodal understanding of our custom Gemini models for search allows AI Mode to truly capture the subtleties of local languages, ensuring that AI Mode is truly useful and relevant for every new language we introduce,” Budaraju said in the post.
Google’s other AI features, including AI Mode and AI Overview, have faced criticism for reducing search traffic to online publishers. However, the company denied that its AI-powered search tools were having a negative impact on website visits.
