Google announced new updates to the Discover and Google News experiences that give users more direct control over the type of content shown to them. The update includes customizing the Discover feed through natural-language commands, adjusting the topics included in daily audio summaries in Google News, and a new tool that helps users select news sites as preferred sources.
Customizing Discover through conversation
Users will be able to tap the three-dot icon next to Discover content, or a dedicated card displayed within the feed, and then describe what they want to see in natural language. The request may include increasing the visibility of specific topics or links, or reducing their visibility.
Google may ask additional questions to better understand preferences. After receiving the request, the feed will be updated immediately according to the new instruction, and the service can also remember these preferences for later use. Google began testing this feature last year, and its rollout will begin in the coming days through the Google app for mobile phones. Discover can also be accessed through Chrome and Android devices.
Broader options for audio summaries in Google News
The updates also include daily audio summaries in the Google News app on Android. Users will choose the topics that interest them from major categories such as general news, business, entertainment and lifestyle, sports, and science and technology.
Customization is not limited to these broad categories; users can also choose more specific subtopics. Within the entertainment section, for example, areas such as art and design, film, music, theater, and television are available. The summaries will clearly display the names of news sources, with links allowing users to go to the full texts.
The “Preferred sources” button for publishers
Google is also introducing a “Preferred sources” button that publishers can place on their sites. When a user clicks it, the site is added to the user’s list of preferred sources in Google, and the user is then redirected to the page they had been browsing on the publisher’s site.
Content from these sources may appear more frequently in the Top Stories section of Google Search. According to Google’s developer documentation, the feature can be used globally in all languages in which the search engine supports the Top Stories section.
What changes in practice?
These tools give users a direct way to adjust what reaches them instead of relying solely on indirect interaction with content over a long period. For publishers, the preferred-sources button may provide an additional channel for remaining visible to readers who have explicitly chosen their sites.
However, the button’s effect on actual visits remains unclear. Selected content may also appear within AI Overviews and AI Mode with a “Preferred source” badge, and both experiences may keep users within Google’s services instead of directing them to the publisher’s site. Therefore, the potential increase in referral traffic to news sites remains an issue that has not been resolved by the announced information.