Google News is becoming more and more personalized thanks to new tools and AI features. For the most part, it’s a good thing, making it more efficient for everyday use. We’ve also seen the UI get some nice upgrades over the past year as well.
However, there’s always so much news to consume, and it’s not always possible to read everything you want to know about. And while there are many different ways to go about this problem, it looks like Google is once again leveraging AI in order to solve this problem.
A new way to experience the news
Google’s latest AI feature comes in the form of News Audio Briefing, which takes popular stories from around the web and makes them into an easily consumable piece of audio. The news was picked up by 9to5Google, and this could become a whole new way for you to enjoy your news content going forward.
As far as what the Google News Audio Briefing is all about, well, for the most part, AI will take content that it deems important to you and create an audio piece that you can quickly listen to. In the app, there will be a new Listen tab, and clicking on this will provide access to the top stories of the moment.
The great part about this is that while you’re listening to stories, you’ll get markers to head into the articles they’re referencing, allowing you to take a deep dive if you want to. And just like any audio player, the News Audio Briefing will allow you to go forward, backwards, play, pause, and even listen at different playback speeds.
And if you’re curious what this sounds like, 9to5Google reports that their briefing was a discussion of the news between two hosts. It’s a good approach, making the audio more lively. Naturally, this could evolve as well, and only time will tell. And just in case you were curious, the Audio Briefing is only being created using approved sources.
So, you may not be able to listen to all the news you’re interested in, but it’s a good start. If you’re interested, you can take a look at your Google News app and check to see whether you have access to the Listen tab. If not, be sure to update your app to the latest version.
