Google Tests “+” Button on Mobile Homepage for AI Mode

Google is testing a brand new “+” button within the search bar on its cellular homepage, changing the magnifying-glass icon that usually seems on the left.

It modifications what the acquainted Google search field can do earlier than a consumer even varieties a question. Tapping the “+” opens a menu with choices together with Gallery, Digital camera, Recordsdata, AI Mode, and Create photographs. The menu additionally seems for customers who will not be signed in to a Google account, not less than on this check.

The menu carefully resembles the “+” menu Google added to Chrome on cellular. Chrome’s cellular “+” menu supplies entry to Digital camera, Gallery and Recordsdata, together with AI options.

Google first added a “+” button to the Search homepage in December 2025. That model changed the magnifying glass on desktop and supplied choices to add a picture or file, which then opened AI Mode. On the time, the function was reported as being accessible on desktop internet, not cellular.

The identical interplay has since appeared on different cellular surfaces. In April 2026, the Google app and Android Search bar examined a “+” menu with choices together with Gallery, Digital camera, AI Mode and picture creation.

Bringing the menu to the cellular homepage places these choices one faucet away from the place many customers begin a search. Customers can begin an AI Mode session or present a picture or file with out first opening a separate search mode.

It isn’t clear how broadly the cellular homepage check has rolled out. Google has not introduced the change, so it may stay an experiment or attain extra customers as a part of a gradual rollout.