In an era where information is abundant but time is scarce, Google is introducing a novel way to consume the news. The tech giant has begun rolling out a new feature within its Google News app that transforms your daily headlines into a personalized, AI-generated audio briefing. This move caters to the growing audience that prefers listening over reading, whether during a commute, workout, or while multitasking. The feature promises to deliver a more engaging and convenient news experience by leveraging advanced text-to-speech technology to create podcast-style discussions.
Google News Gets a "Listen" Tab for Personalized Audio Briefings
The core of this new experience is a dedicated "Listen" tab located at the bottom of the Google News app, positioned beside the "Following" and "Newsstand" sections. Tapping this tab opens an audio player that delivers a "Google News Audio Briefing." This isn't a simple, robotic text-to-speech readout. Google has utilized its improved Gemini voices, which reportedly include emotion detection, to create a more natural, conversational flow between two AI hosts. This approach aims to make the listening experience more engaging and less monotonous than traditional screen readers.
Audio Briefing Specifications:
- Format: AI-generated, podcast-style discussion between two hosts.
- Technology: Powered by improved Google Gemini voices with emotion detection.
- Typical Length: Approximately 15 minutes.
- Content per Briefing: Summarizes roughly half a dozen top news articles.
- Source Control: Users can select and prioritize specific news outlets within the app settings.
Customization and Control at Your Fingertips
Users maintain significant control over their audio news diet. The briefings pull content from Google's existing News Briefing feature, which aggregates headlines from dozens of different media outlets. Within the app's settings, users can select which specific news sources they want to prioritize or remove outlets they don't wish to hear from. The audio player itself is equipped with standard media controls, including play, pause, and the ability to skip forward 30 seconds or backward 15 seconds. It also supports variable playback speeds, ranging from 0.75x to 2.0x, and continues to play in the background if you switch to another app.
Audio Player Controls & Features:
- Standard Controls: Play, Pause.
- Skip Functions: Skip forward (30 seconds), Skip backward (15 seconds).
- Playback Speed: Adjustable from 0.75x to 2.0x.
- Background Playback: Supported.
- On-Screen Info: Displays current article headline and source logo.
- Deep Link: "See featured article" button to open the full story.
A Glimpse into the Audio Experience
While the feature is still in a limited rollout phase, reports indicate that each briefing summarizes approximately half a dozen top articles and runs for about 15 minutes. During playback, the interface displays the headline of the article being discussed, along with the logo of its source publication. A "See featured article" button is prominently available, allowing listeners to seamlessly transition from listening to reading the full story if a particular topic piques their interest. This bridges the gap between passive consumption and active exploration.
Current Availability and Future Rollout
As of mid-December 2025, the audio briefing feature is not yet globally available. Google initially described it as an "experiment" and its current rollout appears focused on the United States. However, users outside supported regions have found a workaround by changing their "Language & regions of interest" setting within the Google News app to the United States. Google has not provided a specific timeline for when the feature will be available worldwide, indicating it remains in a testing phase to refine the experience based on early user feedback.
Feature Availability & Access:
- Platforms: Android and iOS (Google News app version 6.5+)
- Initial Rollout Region: United States (U.S.-focused test)
- Access Workaround: Users outside the U.S. can access the feature by changing the "Language & regions of interest" setting in the app's News Settings to "United States."
- Global Launch: No official timeline provided by Google.
The Evolving Landscape of AI-Powered News Consumption
This launch places Google News in direct competition with other audio news platforms and podcast aggregators. It also represents a significant step in the company's broader integration of generative AI into its consumer products. Unlike some of Google's more interactive AI tools, such as the conversational features in NotebookLM, this audio briefing is a one-way broadcast for now—users cannot ask the podcast follow-up questions. Nevertheless, it signals a clear direction toward making news consumption more flexible, personalized, and accessible, adapting to the varied rhythms of modern life where reading a screen isn't always practical or desirable.