The update, which rolled out on March 27, 2026, allows users in over 200 countries, including Nigeria and across Africa, to engage in real-time, back-and-forth voice and visual conversations with the Google app.

This move effectively transitions Google from a query-and-result engine into a proactive digital assistant capable of seeing and hearing the world alongside the user.

Gemini 3.1 Flash Live: The Multilingual Engine

The backbone of this expansion is Gemini 3.1 Flash Live, Google’s latest specialized voice and audio model. Unlike previous iterations, 3.1 Flash Live is inherently multilingual, allowing it to process and respond in various local languages with near-zero latency.

For the Nigerian digital ecosystem, this means more natural interactions that move away from rigid, robotic voice commands toward intuitive dialogue. The model is being made available across three tiers:

• Developers: Via the Gemini Live API in AI Studio (Preview).
• Enterprises: Through Gemini Enterprise for high-scale customer experience (CX) solutions.
• Consumers: Integrated directly into Search Live and Gemini Live globally.

Search Live: Beyond the Keyboard

Search Live is designed for hands-busy moments where typing is impractical. By tapping the “Live” icon in the Google app (Android or iOS), users can ask questions out loud and receive audio responses.

The most significant update, however, is the Visual Context feature. By enabling the camera, Search Live can see what the user sees.

For example, a technician could point their camera at a complex circuit board and ask, “Where does the jumper cable go?” Search will analyze the visual feed in real-time and provide step-by-step audio guidance alongside relevant web links.

Integration with Google Lens

The update also bridges the gap with Google Lens. Users can now point their camera at any object and tap the Live option at the bottom of the screen to start a conversation about what they see in the real world, from identifying rare plants to translating and explaining technical manuals on the fly.

Strategic Insight: The Battle for the ‘Live’ Web

This launch represents Google’s defense against the rise of specialized AI search agents.

By leveraging the Flash 3.1 architecture, designed for speed and efficiency, Google is betting that the future of search isn’t just a list of links, but a low-latency, multimodal roaming companion that understands context through both sound and sight.

This has gone hand in hand with our ongoing advancements in AI, which help us better understand information in its many forms — whether it’s text, audio, images or videos.

As part of this evolution, we’ve made it easier to express what you’re looking for in ways that are more natural and intuitive. For instance, you can search with your voice, or you can search with your camera using Lens.

And recently, we’ve been testing how generative AI’s ability to understand natural language makes it possible to ask questions on Search in a more natural way.

Ultimately, we envision a future where you can search any way, anywhere you want. Now, as we enter 2024, we’re introducing two major updates that bring this vision closer to reality: Circle to Search and an AI-powered multisearch experience. Let’s take a look at what’s ahead.

Circle (or highlight or scribble) to Search 

Today we unveiled Circle to Search, a new way to search anything on your Android phone screen without switching apps. With a simple gesture, you can select images, text or videos in whatever way comes naturally to you — like circling, highlighting, scribbling or tapping — and find the information you need right where you are.

When something grabs your interest (like these adorable dog goggles!), it can be disruptive to stop what you’re doing and use another app or browser to start searching for information.

But now, whether you’re texting friends, browsing social media or watching a video, you can search what’s on your screen right when your curiosity strikes.

Circle to Search is launching globally on select premium Android smartphones on January 31, starting with the Pixel 8, the Pixel 8 Pro and the new Galaxy S24 Series.

And as we’ve shared, Search and Shopping ads will continue to appear in dedicated ad slots throughout the results page.

Point your camera, ask a question, get help from AI 

In 2022, we pioneered multisearch in Lens as a new way to search multimodally, with both images and text. Since it launched, multisearch has been best for refining visual queries — like searching for a photo of red sneakers with Lens and adding the word “blue” to find them in your preferred colour.

But now, thanks to our recent breakthroughs in generative AI, multisearch makes exploring the world easier than ever before.

Starting today, when you point your camera (or upload a photo or screenshot) and ask a question using the Google app, the new multisearch experience will show results with AI-powered insights that go beyond just visual matches.

This gives you the ability to ask more complex or nuanced questions about what you see, and quickly find and understand key information.

For example, imagine you’re at a yard sale and you come across a strange-looking board game. There’s no box or instructions, so immediately some questions spring to mind: What is this game and how is it played? This is where the new multisearch experience can help.

Just take a picture of the game, add your question (“How do you play this?”), and you’ll get an AI-powered overview that brings together the most relevant information from across the web.

This way, you can quickly find out what the game is called and how to win. And with the AI-powered overview, it’s easy to dig deeper with supporting links and get all the details.

AI-powered overviews on multisearch results are launching this week in English in the U.S. for everyone — no enrollment in Search Labs required.

To get started, just look for the Lens camera icon in the Google app for Android or iOS. If you’re outside the U.S. and opted into SGE, you can preview this new experience in the Google app.

You’ll also be able to access AI-powered overviews on multisearch results within Circle to Search.

Continuing to boldly experiment with generative AI in Search 

This week’s launch of AI-powered insights for multisearch is the result of testing we began last year to see how gen AI can make Search radically more helpful, with our Search Generative Experience (SGE) in Search Labs. We’ve gotten lots of useful feedback from people who’ve

chosen to join this experiment, and we’ll continue to offer SGE in Labs as a testbed for bold new ideas.

But our goal is to make AI helpful for everyone, not just early adopters. So moving forward, as we continue to experiment and uncover which applications of gen AI are most helpful, we’ll introduce them into Search more broadly, like we’re doing now with multisearch results.

Today’s updates will make Search even more natural and intuitive, but we’ve only just scratched the surface of what’s possible.

To try out the latest capabilities we’re testing, enroll in Search Labs (where available) and opt into the SGE experiment. We hope you’ll join Labs as we continue reimagining the future of Search.