Google’s AI Turns Your Discover Feed into Personalized Podcasts: Here’s How It Works

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Julie Blankenship

Is editor at rank1pro.com, has a decade of writing experience. With a strong background in Digital Marketing and PR Agencies.

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  • News Last Updated January 09, 2024

Google is popularizing a new way to consume news and content with its AI-powered feature called Daily Listen, first tested in Search Labs. The experimental service takes the history from the user’s Discover feed and search interactions and converts them into short, personalized episodes of podcasts. This tends to provide an audio stream that fits the user’s specific interest and requirements.

What Is Google Daily Listen?

Google Daily Listen generates brief, five-minute audio summaries of news articles and topics based on your search history and Discover feed activity. By leveraging advanced AI technology, Google curates and summarizes articles into engaging audio clips. Users can listen to these clips, much like a podcast, offering a hands-free and time-efficient way to stay informed.

It creates short digestible overviews of articles depending on the interaction history of a user. Each podcast includes a text transcript, making the podcast accessible for users who either prefer reading or require accessibility features. Listeners can play, pause, mute, skip or rewind stories with flexibility in the consumption. The content is curated specifically for each user making it more relevant than general news podcasts. The “Related Stories” section allows users to give feedback (thumbs up or down) and explore similar topics to refine their preferences even more.

Why It Matters

Since its own users are increasing in numbers, wanting easy ways to stay connected with content, the ever-growing popularity of podcasts and of audio content gives Google Daily Listen a boost, providing new heights in personalization through its approach of combining artificial intelligence with the help of audio.

It also indicates that Google is still committed to the improvement of user experience through innovative AI applications. This feature, just like its NotebookLM and Audio Overviews, is a way for Google to deliver smarter and more tailored solutions to its users.

Accessing Google Daily Listen

It is currently accessible only to a small group of users from the U.S. through the Search Labs app on Android and iOS. Users who would like to experience this feature may join Search Labs to test the service as Google collects feedback to make the service more refined.

If successful, Google Daily Listen would be a permanent offering, creating a precedent for AI-driven, personalized audio content. This innovation aligns not only with consumer preferences for audio but also with how AI can adapt content delivery to individual needs.