During the Q2 2025 earnings call, Sundar Pichai shared some updates on Google AI Mode’s progress, with the latest features (Gemini 2.5 Pro and Deep Search) announced last week now widely rolling out.
The Google CEO said AI Mode “already has over 100 million monthly active users in the U.S. and India.” The “end-to-end AI Search experience” entered testing in March and saw a US launch at the end of May, with India following earlier this month.
Following last week’s announcement, Google AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers in the US are now seeing the ability to switch from the “Default” model to Gemini 2.5 Pro. On desktop and mobile web, you’ll find a dropdown menu in the top-left corner. This is also where you can access the “Deep Search” chip.
In the Android and iOS apps, the latter is not currently available, while you cannot switch models when you first enter a query in the prompt bar. The picker only appears after the initial response. That will hopefully be updated in the future, but until then you can visit google.com/aimode on a mobile browser.
Mobile web vs. app
One continued question from analysts on the earnings call is about Google having both the Gemini app — which now has 450 million monthly active users, with “daily requests growing over 50% from Q1” — and AI Mode.
Broadly, there are some use cases where you can get a great experience in both places, but there are use cases which are very specific.
—Pichai
AI Mode “shines” with “information-focused” queries, with the Gemini models “using Search deeply as a tool.” Meanwhile, the Gemini app is more of an assistant that can help with tasks. With coding and making a video cited as examples. Pichai amusingly said:
I think, between these two surfaces, you’re pretty much… covering the breadth and depth of what humanity can possibly do, so I think there’s plenty for two surfaces to tackle at this moment.
Looking ahead:
…I’m glad we have both surfaces and we can innovate in both of these areas. And of course, there will be areas which will be commonly served by both applications, and over time, I think we can make the experience more seamless for our users.
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