Google announced on Wednesday that it is bringing its AI-powered conversational search feature, Search Live, to India, launching in both English and Hindi. Simultaneously, the company is expanding its AI Mode to support seven new Indian languages, solidifying its presence in one of its fastest-growing markets.
Real-Time Multimodal Assistance
Search Live, which was first introduced in the U.S. in July, is built on Google’s Project Astra technology and is accessible through the company’s AI Mode. The feature allows users to point their phone camera at objects to receive real-time assistance and engage in back-and-forth conversations that leverage the visual context of the live camera feed.
India is only the second market after the U.S. to receive Search Live, a logical choice given the country’s significant base of early AI adopters who have helped popularize other Google products like the Gemini Nano Banana image model. Google plans to use this early adoption in India to train its systems on a wider range of visual contexts, thereby making Search Live more capable over time. Hema Budaraju, vice president of product management for Search at Google, noted in a blog post that “People in India are power users of multimodal search, forming our largest user base for both voice and visual search globally.”
Search Live began rolling out to users in India today and will continue to reach more users over the coming weeks. Once available, users can access the feature by tapping the “Live” icon under the search bar in the Google app, or by opening Lens and selecting “Live” from the bottom of the screen.
Multilingual AI Mode Expansion
Google also expanded its AI Mode to seven new Indian languages: Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. This localization effort is part of a larger global expansion that will make the AI-powered search experience available in over 200 countries and territories worldwide.
The company’s AI Mode, which first debuted in the U.S. in March, allows users to ask complex, multi-part questions through an AI interface. It was launched in India in June and expanded globally in August. Last month, Google added five new languages—including Hindi, Indonesian, and Japanese—to the feature. Budaraju stressed that the expansion relies on advanced reasoning capabilities: “The advanced reasoning and multimodal understanding of our custom Gemini model for Search allows AI Mode to truly grasp the subtleties of local languages, ensuring AI Mode is genuinely helpful and relevant in all the new languages we introduce.”
It is important to note the potential for user confusion: Search Live, which is powered by a custom version of Gemini, is a distinct feature from the similarly named Gemini Live, which offers a comparable conversational experience within the separate Gemini app. Meanwhile, Google’s AI Mode and other AI features, including AI Overviews, have faced criticism from publishers who claim the features are reducing search traffic to their websites. Google has repeatedly denied that its AI-driven search tools are hurting website visits.
Author’s Opinion
Google’s decision to make India the first market outside the U.S. to receive its cutting-edge Search Live feature, alongside a massive localized language expansion, is a calculated strategic move that designates India as the indispensable proving ground for global AI development. By focusing on the unique multilingual and multimodal search habits of Indian users, Google is leveraging this diverse, high-volume market to stress-test and refine its custom Gemini model. This ensures that when the AI is deployed globally, its systems are already robust and culturally nuanced, effectively treating the complexity of India as a critical asset in the world AI race.
Featured image credit: Maxence Pira via Unsplash
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