Google AI mode now lets you search using photos with powerful lens integration

Google has rolled out a major update to AI Mode, introducing multimodal search capabilities that now let users upload or snap a photo to initiate a search. Previously limited to text-based queries, AI Mode now integrates with Google Lens to understand and respond to image-based questions with deep, insightful answers.

“With AI Mode’s new multimodal understanding, you can snap a photo or upload an image, ask a question about it and get a rich, comprehensive response with links to dive deeper,” Google shared. This updated experience merges Lens’ visual search power with a specialized version of Gemini, Google’s next-gen AI model.

Here’s how it works:

AI Mode uses Gemini’s advanced multimodal capabilities to analyze entire scenes within an image—recognizing how objects relate to each other, their materials, colors, shapes, and more. Lens identifies individual objects precisely, and AI Mode follows up with a “query fan-out” technique. This means it automatically generates multiple search queries based on both the full image and its components, delivering layered, highly relevant results.

The result? Smarter, more context-aware answers that help users explore information more deeply than traditional Google Search.

Google had recently started making AI Mode available to non-premium users, and now, according to Google’s Robby Stein, it’s being rolled out to millions more Labs users across the U.S.

This update marks a significant leap in how users interact with visual data—making search more intuitive and dynamic than ever before.