Google has expanded Search Live globally, giving users in more than 200 countries and territories the ability to have real-time, multimodal conversations with Search, using both their voice and live camera feed. Search Live first launched in English in the U.S. last September. This week’s update takes it worldwide.

Liza Ma, Google’s director of product management for Search, announced the global expansion of Search Live on the Google blog, describing it as built for moments when typing a query just won’t cut it. The rollout covers all languages and locations where AI Mode is currently available, powered by Gemini 3.1 Flash Live, a new audio and voice model that is inherently multilingual.

How to use Google Search Live

Open the Google app on Android or iOS, tap the Live icon beneath the search bar, and start talking. Search responds with real-time audio, handles follow-up questions conversationally and surfaces web links when you want to go deeper. Users already in Google Lens can tap the Live option at the bottom of the screen to jump straight into a back-and-forth conversation about whatever the camera is pointed at.

The camera integration is where the experience separates itself from conventional voice search. Point your phone at a leaky pipe and ask what the part is. Hold it over equipment you don’t recognize and get a guided breakdown of how to fix it or who might be able to help you, locally. Aim it at a tangle of cables and ask which goes where, with no need to type in make, model or cable type. Search sees the visual context and responds accordingly.

Rajan Patel, Google’s vice president of Search, shared a demo on LinkedIn showing the feature in everyday scenarios, including household troubleshooting, picking up new hobbies and exploring with kids. Google AI Performance Lead Alice Liu put it more bluntly in her LinkedIn Post: “We just took ‘googling it’ from a solo mission to a full blown FaceTime call with the world wide web, with Search Live! “

What makes Search Live different?

It’s worth being precise about what Search Live adds that tools like Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude don’t fully replicate: live video. Not a snapshot or photo upload, but a continuous, real-time feed of whatever is happening in front of you. A photo captures a moment. Video captures a situation. For users who can’t describe what they’re looking at, who don’t know the name of the part that’s failing or the plant that’s wilting, being able to simply show Search what they’re seeing in real time is a fundamentally different kind of access.

Will Search Live be adopted?

Google has a long history of building tools that were genuinely ahead of their time and never found their audience. The site killedbygoogle.com catalogs more than 250 shuttered services. The list includes products that were, at least for a time, full of potential to grow or own a category, some very well adopted: Google Chromecast, Google Glass and the Google+ social platform are all included. These products were innovative, and often visionary, but ultimately abandoned.

Is this time different for Google?

The timing of Search Live’s global rollout may work in Google’s favor in a way those earlier launches didn’t. Consumers are more comfortable with conversational AI than at any point in history. ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and other AI assistants have normalized the idea of talking to a search interface rather than typing into one. The behavioral foundation may finally be in place.

Alternatively, people waving their cameras around for visual search may create similar adoption struggles that came with products Google Lens.

Whether Search Live becomes the next Pokemon Go for the real world or another entry on killedbygoogle remains to be seen. Regardless, executives should be keeping an eye on it with a critical lens: as this new search paradigm takes hold, how will brands, marketers and developers find ways to surface their products and services through a live, conversational interface? Without millions of blue links, and limited visual real estate, Search Live could become an incredibly powerful channel for visibility if brands are capable of harnessing it.

The rules of traditional search engine optimization took years to develop. The rules for AI search are still being written.