TL;DR
- Google is testing a new feature for AI Overviews in the Google app for Android, which will make it easier to see the sources behind AI-generated summaries.
- Users will be able to directly access linked sources within the AI overview, whereas previously, such sourcing wasn’t immediately apparent.
Google AI Overviews have been a bit of a hit-and-miss. While many users appreciate the feature’s convenience, many others prefer to turn off AI overviews because AI results need to be double-checked for accuracy, often defeating the purpose of a Google Search. Google understands the need to make it easier to cross-check and verify AI overview results, and it could soon make it easier to do so by listing all the sources and related content that make up the AI overview summary.
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When you search using the Google app and receive an AI Overview response, you can check the AI result for its sources. However, doing so involves using the Google “G” icon at the bottom of every answer, which then uses Google Search to find similar content. This is what this process looks like at the moment:
The latest Google app v15.47.28 beta appears to be testing the addition of links to relevant web pages directly within the text result of AI Overviews. Google had mentioned this change for AI Overviews in August but did not mention it for the Google app. We managed to activate the feature in the Google app, and here’s how it would appear.
The expand icon at the bottom right (next to the Source and Related Content section) shows a list of all the sources and related content from different websites, as seen in the third screenshot above.
This is similar in approach to how Google’s AI overviews on the web appear on your mobile device, which is shown below for reference:
Aamir Siddiqui / Android Authority
This UI for additional sourcing is not currently live within the Google app for Android. We don’t know if and when Google will go ahead with the change. However, given how the approach aligns with the mobile-web version of AI overviews, we hope to see it go live on Android very soon.
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