Google Adds an AI Chatbot to Let You Customize Your Discover Feed

Google is rolling out a customizable Discover feed feature in the Google app that uses AI to adjust the feed based on preferences you describe through a chatbot-style interface. The feature is arriving "in the coming days," according to The Verge.

The customization flow is simple. You access it through the three-dot menu on the Discover feed, which opens a conversational interface where you describe what you want to see more or less of. The chatbot confirms your choices, lists the content types it will prioritize, and lets you add more input. A "Refresh your feed" option applies the changes. The Verge

Google Discover currently serves recommended articles based on your activity across Google's search engine and apps. The new chatbot layer adds an explicit, plain-language control on top of the existing behind-the-scenes personalization that has always driven the feed. Think of it as the difference between a streaming service auto-selecting shows based on your viewing history and a search box where you can type, "More documentaries, fewer reality shows."

This is one of several personalization moves Google has made across its products over the past year. A September 2025 blog post announced new ways to personalize Discover so users could keep up with creators and publishers they care about Google Blog. In January 2026, Google announced Personal Intelligence in AI Mode, which lets users draw on context from Gmail and Photos to deliver tailored responses in Search Google Blog. At I/O 2026 in May, Google declared the "era of Search agents," enabling users to create, customize, and manage multiple AI agents for tasks directly in Search Google Blog.

Alongside the Discover chatbot, Google announced the ability to personalize daily audio briefings in the Google News app on Android, and updated its Preferred Sources feature so publishers can place an interactive "Preferred Sources" button on their sites. Readers who select it add the publisher to their list without navigating away from the webpage. The Verge

Google is also bringing AI Overviews into the Discover feed in the U.S., with a focus on lifestyle topics such as sports and entertainment Mashable. Separately, Google has been rewriting headlines and snippets of news articles in Discover using AI, rather than displaying the original headlines and snippets written by publishers Nieman Lab.

The convergence of these threads is worth pausing on. Discover is simultaneously gaining AI-driven personalization controls, AI-generated overview content, and AI-rewritten article snippets. Each touches a different layer of the feed: the filtering logic that decides what you see, the synthetic content Google places on top of it, and the presentation of third-party articles within it. Taken together, they position Discover less as a passive recommendation surface and more as an AI-mediated content layer where Google controls ranking, summarization, and now the customization interface itself.

The chatbot approach to preference management is also a notable design choice. Google could have exposed toggle-based controls or topic pickers, which is the established pattern in recommendation settings across the industry. Instead, it opted for a conversational interface that confirms intent, lists what will change, and lets you iterate. This mirrors the interaction model Google has been building into AI Mode and the Search agents announced at I/O, suggesting a deliberate move toward chat as the default control surface for personalization across Google's products.

For publishers, the implications cut both ways. The Preferred Sources button gives them a lightweight onboarding mechanism directly on their own sites, which could help build persistent audience relationships within Google's ecosystem rather than purely through direct traffic. At the same time, the AI snippet-rewriting practice already in Discover means publishers have less control over how their content is presented once it surfaces there. A publisher's headline may not be the headline a Discover user sees, and the new chatbot customization gives users further ability to shape what appears based on preferences Google interprets and applies.

The broader trajectory across Google's announcements is a steady expansion of AI mediation between users and content. From AI Mode's personalized suggestions based on past searches, through Personal Intelligence tapping Gmail and Photos context, through Search agents, and now to Discover's chatbot-driven customization, Google is building a consistent pattern: user intent expressed in natural language, interpreted by AI, and applied across multiple content surfaces. The Discover chatbot is a relatively small feature in isolation, but it extends that pattern to Google's most passive content surface, the one users encounter without actively searching for anything at all.