Google is quietly lowering the barriers to both accessing its generative AI and putting it into ordinary, everyday use. The Google app now surfaces AI Mode shortcuts directly inside Discover stories and regular web links, allowing you to take a summary of an article, ask a follow-up question, or jump in further without having to open AI Mode or Gemini yourself.
What changed in the Google app’s new AI Mode shortcuts
Early testers have observed three settings for AI Mode in the Google app’s three-dot menu when opening a Discover card or tapping on a link.
On X, users like @AndellDam and @gaganghotra_ posted screenshots of shortcuts labeled with options to define the story, ask a related question, or dive deeper into the topic. The options are live for some users in recent Google app builds, including version 16.47.49, according to several reports.
It is a relatively minor interface change, but an important one. Instead of making AI Mode a destination, Google is baking it into the places where people already read, skim, and decide what they want to open next. It’s the distinction between a tool you remember to use and an assistant that pops up at just the right time.
How the new AI Mode shortcuts work inside Discover
Tap the three-dot menu on a Discover story (or a web link opened via the Google app) and you’ll find these AI Mode actions:
- Summarize: Produces a shortened, AI-written summary of the article within the AI Mode tab — great for light-touch news reading.
- Ask a Follow-Up: Opens AI Mode with the article’s URL preloaded, so that you can source specifics — like methodology, key claims, or conflicting viewpoints — from the piece itself.
- Dive Deeper: Copies the article headline and sends it as a query to AI Mode, leading to wider exploration across sources, related topics, and timelines.
It effectively makes any story into a platform for discovery and verification. Rather than juggling tabs or feeding links into Gemini, the flow is a one-tap flip from reading to analysis.
Why these AI Mode shortcuts in Discover could matter
Lowering the interaction cost is a well-documented way to increase adoption; usability studies published by organizations like Nielsen Norman Group continue to demonstrate that fewer steps lead to more engagement. By taking its AI tools to the point of need, where people come into contact with the information they’re seeking, it is more likely that people will actually use them.
Scale matters here. Google Discover is a default content surface across many Android phones, and Google has said in the past that Discover counts as “tremendous reach.” With a worldwide installed base of more than 3 billion active Android devices, even limited rollouts have the potential to drive significant use and behavior change in AI-assisted reading.
For shoppers, the gain is time. Big features, policy papers, or technical write-ups can be triaged with ease and have the option to drill into sources or ask specific follow-up questions. For newsrooms and publishers, it’s a mixed bag: while summaries might cut into some clicks, AI-fueled assistants can also surface more nuanced angles of a story (or single out why something doesn’t add up) and even prompt deeper engagement — particularly if the original URL for an article is preserved as context for questions.
Limits and availability for the new Google AI shortcuts
As of press time, these shortcuts appear to be visible only within the Google app. They don’t show up in Chrome Custom Tabs or other browsers that apps can launch of their own accord. As with many Google tests, availability is probably subject to server-side flags and app version, so not everyone will see these options right away.
It also joins other AI experiences Google is introducing, such as Gemini integration in the Google app and AI Overviews in Search. That parallel evolution points towards a more general theme: AI should be ambient, take the current context into account, and be reachable in as few taps as possible.
The bigger AI strategy behind Google’s latest shortcuts
Google’s ultimate aim is unmistakable: to integrate generative AI into the daily rhythms of search and browsing. The new shortcuts mean both Discover and web links function more as gateways to analysis, comparison, or synthesis. It’s a shift from the question “What happened?” to the question “What matters here for me?”
Expect rapid iteration. The search giant normally develops these enhancements further depending on engagement signals and input from testers and developers. If shortcuts are driving meaningful usage, they’ll grow across more regions, languages, and surfaces, including Chrome as well as potentially Chrome Custom Tabs that many publishers depend on for in-app browsing.
For users, it’s straightforward: In the Google app, open the three-dot menu while reading an article in Discover or after tapping any link. If you see the AI Mode selections, it’s faster to summarize, ask questions, and explore without leaving your reading.