Google is adding a “Simplify” feature for iOS users that uses AI to translate complex or technical text into language that aims to be easy to understand. Simplify leverages what Google calls “a novel prompt refinement approach developed by Google Research,” drawing on the company’s proprietary AI, Gemini, to make complicated writing “digestible — without losing key details.” Google’s research indicates people find Simplify’s plainspeak “significantly more helpful than the original complex text” and improved retention. “Simplify uses AI to make dense text on the web easier to understand — without leaving a web page,” Google explains.

“By offering a built-in feature like Simplify, Google is likely hoping that people will stay within its ecosystem of tools and services for help with complex topics, rather than turning to popular third-party tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT,” TechCrunch posits.

“To use Simplify, you’ll need to browse the web from the Google app,” TechRadar reports, adding that “when you hit a wall of needlessly complicated text, you can highlight it, and a little Simplify button will appear.” Tapping the button transforms the text into “something far more comprehensible to the average person.”

“A new, simpler version of the text [appears], helping you quickly understand a new concept so you can keep reading,” Google explains on its general interest blog The Keyword.

A Google Research blog calls Simplify “minimally lossy text simplification with Gemini,” further detailing that the goal “is to enhance clarity while meticulously preserving the original meaning, detail, and nuance,” which is distinct from “summarization (which is ok with dropping information) or explanation (which often adds information).”

The technical exploration is two-fold: “First, we present a novel system featuring an automated evaluation and iterative prompt refinement loop: this enables Gemini models to discover the most effective prompt for high-fidelity text simplification by iterating at a scale and speed impractical to achieve with manual prompt optimization. Second, through a rigorous, large-scale randomized study, we demonstrate that text simplification measurably improves user comprehension and reduces cognitive load.”

“The Simplify button won’t utterly change your life or redefine how you engage with content online, but it could cut down on the need for new tabs or at least remove the need to copy and paste opaque text into Gemini or ChatGPT every time you run up against a linguistic roadblock,” TechRadar concludes.