Google gets its biggest visual search update in years — here’s what's changed

Google is marking the 25th anniversary of Google Images, but it’s not just a celebration. The company is rolling out a major refresh of its visual search experience and bringing AI-powered image generation into Search, making it easier to discover and create images without leaving the results page.

Google Images launched in 2001, helping to change Search from a text-first experience to one where people can explore the web visually. Google says it’s now taking another step, with a redesigned homepage that feels more like an endless feed of inspiration than a traditional image search.

The new Google Images homepage has a browseable gallery that updates in real-time and is personalized to your interests. As you add images to Collections, they’ll automatically show up as tabs above the gallery, so you can easily jump back into topics you’ve been exploring.

Over the next few weeks, this new experience will begin rolling out to US desktop users in English and will require you to be signed in to a Google account to use.

Google is extending its AI ambitions too, bringing image generation directly into AI Overviews. Rather than trying to find an image that may or may not exist, you’ll be able to type in a prompt, and Google’s new Nano Banana model will generate an all-new image from scratch.

This feature is designed for situations where you have a specific idea, but existing web images do not meet your needs. Over the coming weeks, AI Overviews will gradually roll out image generation in English in those regions where AI Mode already supports it.