Google launches a chatbot interface for personalizing the Google Discover feed and expands the Preferred Sources button
Google is launching a chatbot interface in the Google app for describing Discover feed preferences in natural language, alongside personalized audio briefings in Google News and a Preferred Sources button for publisher websites.
Google is launching a new chatbot interface in the Google app for customizing the Discover feed. It is located in the three-dot menu of the feed — tapping it opens a chatbot where users describe their preferences in natural language; the interface confirms their choices, summarizes what type of content it will prioritize, and lets them refine their choices. After confirming, users simply refresh the feed with the “Refresh your feed" button, and Google will remember the settings for future visits. According to the company, the feature is rolling out gradually “in the coming days". The company also announced that Android users will be able to personalize the topics of daily audio briefings in the Google News app.
At the same time, Google is expanding Preferred Sources, a feature that displays more content from a reader’s favorite sources across Top Stories, AI Overviews and AI Mode in Search. Publishers can now add an interactive Preferred Sources button to their websites, allowing readers to add a site to their list of favorite sources directly from the website without having to go to the Google source preferences page. The feature follows the launch of Preferred Sources in AI Mode and AI Overviews in May 2026 (previously available only in Top Stories); according to Google, users had selected over 345 000 unique sources across the web by then.
According to Google, users are roughly twice as likely to click through to a source they have marked as preferred, if it is available. TechCrunch describes these steps as part of the response from Google to the decline in traffic to publisher websites caused by the growth of AI features in search.
Why it matters
It gives readers an easier way to influence the content recommended in Discover and News without having to go through settings individually. For publishers whose traffic is being reduced by AI Overviews and AI Mode, it offers a concrete tool — a button that can be embedded directly — to maintain visibility and win back clicks from pages where Google answers readers without requiring them to leave search.
What was added since the original report
Verified updates
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The AI chatbot interface for customization is located in the three-dot menu of the Discover feed; The feature is rolling out gradually in the Google app in the coming days; Google will remember user choices for future visits; Personalization will expand to the Google News app with audio briefings; Preferred Sources will expand to include an interactive button on publisher websites
- The AI chatbot interface for customization is located in the three-dot menu of the Discover feed
- The feature is rolling out gradually in the Google app in the coming days
- Google will remember user choices for future visits
- Personalization will expand to the Google News app with audio briefings
- Preferred Sources will expand to include an interactive button on publisher websites
Two audiences, two different impacts
What this means
For individuals
Users of the Google app will be able to fine-tune the Discover feed by describing their preferences in natural language instead of manually clicking through individual settings, and Google will remember their choices for next time.
For a business
Publishers are getting a tool from Google to counter the decline in traffic caused by AI search: the Preferred Sources button will let readers mark a site as a preferred source for Search, Discover and Google News directly on the website, which Google says should make them up to twice as likely to click through.
Sales and marketingCheck the original
Event sources
confirmed by 2 independent sources · 2 publishers, 2 independent. We count feeds from the same owner only once.