Google has launched its Gemini-powered AI search tool Search Live in the United States. The mobile integration for iOS and Android can look at the world through your phone’s camera and respond to questions conversationally, in real time, while also offering helpful Web links for a deeper dive. “Just open the Google app and tap the new Live icon under the search bar,” Google explains. Camera sharing will be activated by default and the app also accepts video input. If you’re already pointing your camera with Google Lens, you can select the Live option at the bottom of the screen.

“The promise is sweeping but straightforward,” writes TechRadar, expecting Search Live to pick up many typed queries to “carry on a conversation with you about the world directly in front of you.”

Some convenient uses might be “pointing your phone at the mess of cables behind your TV and asking which one is HDMI 2.1 or holding it up to a strange-looking pastry in a bakery window and asking Google Search Live what it is,” TechRadar suggests.

In a blog post, Google cites use-cases like travel exploration, asking adventurers to picture “a hands-free conversation about the neighborhoods you want to visit while you finish applying sunscreen.” Or learning new skills, such as “crafting the perfect cup of matcha” with Search Live serving as a personal “expert advisor — point your camera at the equipment in your matcha set and ask what each tool is used for.”

“Search Live uses what Google calls ‘query fan-out’ to conduct its searches,” which means “the AI doesn’t just try to answer your specific question; it also looks for answers to related questions to broaden its search and provide a more comprehensive response for you,” TechRadar writes.

Search Live was initially previewed in May at Google I/O, with an opt-in Google Labs implementation released in July. Mashable reports Search Live is now officially “part of Google’s AI Mode search tool, powered by Gemini,” though as noted above it is also accessible in Google Lens.

After trying it in a private demo, Mashable was impressed, writing that “Gemini was able to quickly identify objects, products, games, and other items, while also engaging in a back-and-forth conversation with the user about those items.” It was also able to correctly identify upside-down objects in a grouping of 10 items “and answer questions about them.”

Search Live’s prominent placement in the Google app “shows just how much Google is centering AI Mode and AI-powered search over its classic search product,” explains Mashable. This month Google also debuted a Gemini AI assistant in Chrome.