Google introduced a new “Images” tab in its mobile Search app for iOS and Android, offering personalized inspirational imagery to users.
The company announced on Wednesday this dedicated images tab, accessible via an icon at the bottom of the Google Search app, will display images tailored to individual user interests.
Google stated images will update daily, providing users with a tool to organize creative concepts and find visual inspiration. Suggested uses include planning trips, hosting parties, apartment decorating, and discovering new fashion trends. These applications align with common uses for platforms like Pinterest and Instagram.
Users can browse images within the new tab, conduct additional image searches, and save preferred images to their personal collections.
Video: Google
The addition aligns with Google’s objective to increase user engagement within its app, particularly as artificial intelligence businesses impact its search and advertising sectors. The feature also provides a new advertising surface within the widely used Search app. Google has previously tested an ads carousel within its image tab on mobile devices, suggesting potential ad placements in this new feature.
This initiative follows Google’s 2018 launch of a Collections feature, which allowed users to save images, websites, products, and map locations. That feature later incorporated AI to suggest additional items for collection. However, the 2018 Collections feature was not exclusively image-focused.
The new images tab will roll out over the next few weeks for both iOS and Android platforms in the U.S. Google has not specified a timeline for a global release of this feature.
