이미지: The Verge AI
Summary
- Google is rolling out a chatbot-style customization feature for the Discover feed to the Google app over the coming days
- Opening the chatbot window from the three-dot menu and describing desired content in a sentence adjusts content priority and is remembered on future visits
- The same announcement also revealed topic selection for Google News app audio briefings and an updated "Preferred Sources" button for publishers
- 기능
- 디스커버 피드 3점 메뉴에 챗봇형 커스터마이징 옵션 추가
- 출시 시점
- "coming days"(며칠 내) 구글 앱에 순차 적용
- 사용 방식
- 챗봇 창에 원하는 콘텐츠를 문장으로 입력
- 적용 절차
- 챗봇이 우선순위 콘텐츠 유형 제시 → 추가 입력 가능 → '피드 새로고침' 눌러 반영
- 동반 업데이트 1
- 구글 뉴스 앱(안드로이드) 오디오 브리핑 주제 선택 기능
- 동반 업데이트 2
- 퍼블리셔가 사이트에 배치하는 '선호 매체' 인터랙티브 버튼
- 유사 사례
- 유튜브·인스타그램·블루스카이·X도 AI 기반 피드 커스터마이징 도입
A feed that responds to "just show me cooking recipes"
The Discover feed, which appears when you scroll down in the Google app, has recommended articles based on your search activity and behavior in other Google apps. The problem was that users had no good way to check whether they actually liked these recommendations. Google is now adding a chatbot-style interface to this feed. Users describe what content they want in a sentence, the feed adjusts to match that preference, and the choice is remembered on subsequent visits. The Verge reported on the feature based on a demo video shared by Google.
Talk to the chatbot, and the feed changes
The new feature lives inside the three-dot menu on the Discover feed screen. Tapping this menu brings up a chat-style interface where users can type in what kind of content they want to see. The chatbot reviews the request and summarizes the types of content it will now prioritize showing. If the result doesn't match what the user wanted, they can add further clarification, and tapping the "Refresh feed" button applies the changes to the actual feed.
Until now, the Discover feed relied on indirect signals — clicking or swiping past articles — to infer preferences. This new feature changes that approach: instead of inferring taste from behavior, users state what they want directly in a sentence, and Google summarizes and confirms that request back to them.
How to try it
- Go to the Discover feed in the Google app.
- Tap the three-dot menu in the upper right corner of the screen.
- Select the newly added customization option to open the chatbot window.
- Type in what content you want to see more or less of.
- The chatbot summarizes the types of content it will prioritize going forward.
- If the result doesn't match what you wanted, you can add further clarification to adjust it again.
- Tapping "Refresh feed" immediately applies the updated preferences to the feed.
The feature is set to roll out gradually to the Google app over the coming days. Specific availability by country, platform, or plan tier has not been separately confirmed.
Two other updates announced alongside it
In the same announcement, Google unveiled two other features tied to its news app and search results. One is an update to audio briefings in the Google News app for Android. Users can now choose specific topics they want to hear about, narrowing the content included in the daily summarized briefing. The other is an update to the "Preferred Sources" feature, which surfaces articles more often from outlets users favor in Search's "Top stories" section, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. With this update, publishers can now place an interactive "Preferred Sources" button directly on their own websites. Readers can tap that button to add the outlet to their preferred sources list without leaving the page.
| Update | Location | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| Discover customization | Three-dot menu in Google app | Describe preferences to the chatbot in a sentence to adjust the feed |
| Audio briefing topic selection | Google News app (Android) | Choose specific topics to hear about |
| Preferred Sources button | Publisher websites | One-click favoriting without leaving the page |
Other platforms are heading the same direction
Letting users adjust their feeds directly with AI isn't unique to Google. YouTube, Instagram, Bluesky, and X have all already added AI-powered features letting users tweak their own feeds. Rather than passively accepting algorithmically recommended content, users stating their preferences directly is a trend spreading across social platforms broadly, not just news feeds.
Editor's take
What makes this feature notable is how it changes the way Google handles its search and recommendation algorithms. Until now, Google's recommendation system was something of a black box, inferring preferences by interpreting behavioral data like clicks, dwell time, and scrolling. The chatbot interface opens up part of that inference process for users to see directly. By adding a confirmation step — "here's what we'll prioritize showing you" — the accountability for explaining why a recommendation appeared has shifted from the algorithm to the chat window.
Based on experience with chatbot-style customization added to social feeds elsewhere, the success of such features usually hinges on "memory." If a stated preference doesn't carry over to the next visit and has to be re-explained every time, users quickly abandon it. Google's emphasis on the feed "remembering" preferences in this announcement appears to be a direct response to that concern.
For teams running news or content services domestically, the more notable detail in this announcement may actually be the "Preferred Sources" button. It creates a channel for publishers to directly surface their own outlet within search results. Outlets that depend on search traffic will want to watch closely how this button actually gets embedded on their pages, and how much each click translates into repeat visits.
In the coming weeks, more users are likely to encounter this chatbot option in the Discover feed. The next step will most likely be extending the same conversational adjustment approach to search results themselves.
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