No need to read: Google Search can now summarize results aloud using Audio Overviews
Have you ever needed Google’s help but were just a bit too busy to look at your screen? This may now be a thing of the past, with the rollout of Google's latest experimental feature, Audio Overviews.
Have you ever needed Google’s help but were just a bit too busy to look at your screen? This may now be a thing of the past, with the rollout of Google's latest experimental feature, Audio Overviews.
Google has been at the forefront of AI integration — and it’s done it again through Audio Overviews, which uses Google’s Gemini AI model to generate short, conversational audio clips summarizing certain search results.
Launched Friday in Search Labs, Audio Overviews turns certain queries into 30- to 45-second, podcast-style explainers. If you’re not particularly familiar with the topic, the feature can “help you get a lay of the land”, according to Google.
To test it, opt into the experiment in Labs, find the Audio Overviews experiment, turn it on, and start searching. Once you see a topic that Google considers optimal for a short audio summary, you’ll see an option to generate one.
The interface supports basic functions, such as a play/pause button, volume controls, and a quick mute toggle.
You can also provide your feedback by giving a thumbs up/down on each discussion, as well as the experiment as a whole in Labs.
The feature is available on mobile and desktop, but is currently limited to US users only.
It’s similar to Audio Overviews on NotebookLM, which can assist users while they work on their documents by providing summaries, answering questions, and more.
In 2024, Google discussed its multimodality capabilities extensively at its developer conference and started rolling out some of the tools. For example, it introduced a function that allows users to record videos and ask questions about objects in motion using voice commands.
