Paul Jones / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google app could soon get AI suggestions for searches on iOS.
- Tapping on the pencil icon in the search box opens a new page with a text box.
- When you start typing, suggestions to help narrow the search are generated.
Google has been working hard to incorporate AI into every nook and cranny of its products. For example, the company recently gave Gemini the ability to summarize Drive folders to provide a quick overview. We’ve also recently discovered that the company is working on an AI-powered “Call To-do List” function. In its latest initiative, it looks like we could start seeing AI search suggestions in the Google app on iOS.
An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
While exploring the Google app on iOS, we noticed something interesting. Sitting neatly in the search box was a new pencil icon. Tapping on this icon opens up a new page with a text box and a few suggestions, as seen in the screenshots below.
When you begin typing in this text box, you’ll see the Gemini icon below along with text that reads “Generate AI suggestions.” Once enough words are in the field, it automatically starts generating suggestions based on your query. You can then select these suggestions to narrow down your search, working like filters.
You can see an example in the video above where we asked for help buying a gift. The suggestions that were generated provided options for “budget,” “gift occasion,” and “relationship to recipient.” So you could select “friend,” “under $50,” and “birthday” to get search results for an affordable birthday gift for your friend.
It appears this feature is still in beta testing, however, as it doesn’t work properly quite yet. In the video below, you can see the feature struggling to work.
This feature could possibly save users some time, as they would not have to type out these commonly used keywords to get the results they are looking for. Thanks to @TechA7mad on X (formerly Twitter) for sharing this discovery with us.
