Google gives you more control over Search, Discover, and News feeds
Google is rolling out three personalization updates across Search, Discover, and Google News that let you decide what you actually see — and what you don't. The changes, announced officially by Google, build on a Preferred Sources feature that launched in the US and India in 2025 and has already logged over 600,000 unique source selections.
Preferred Sources, now easier to add
Publishers can now embed a one-click button directly on their websites. Tap it and that outlet gets added to your Preferred Sources list, pushing its stories higher in Search results, Top Stories blocks, AI Overviews, and AI Mode responses. Previously you had to manually type a site's name into a separate settings page — a small but real friction that kept most readers from bothering.
The new embeddable Preferred Sources button lets publishers add a one-click option for readers to follow them across Google Search and Discover.
The embeddable button is a direct play for independent and mid-size outlets trying to compete with bigger brands in Google's discovery ecosystem. With 600,000+ sources already selected per Search Engine Journal, there's clear appetite for this kind of control. That said, audio briefings — the third feature below — are Android-only for now, which limits the experience for iPhone-first readers in the UK and US.
Plain-English feed tuning
The Discover feed is getting a natural-language control, accessible through the three-dot menu inside the Google app. Type what you want more of ("more Premier League, less politics") and the algorithm adjusts in real time, remembering your preferences going forward.
Discover's new natural-language controls let you describe the topics you want — or don't want — in plain text.
This is a meaningful shift from the blunt "hide topic" or "see less of this" buttons that existed before. Whether the underlying algorithm actually honors nuanced requests consistently remains to be seen in practice.
Audio briefings, topic by topic
Google News on Android is updating its daily audio briefings. You can now select specific topics to include, see clear source labels for each story, and tap through to the full article. A publisher pilot that launched in December 2025 adds deeper, AI-assisted coverage of major stories — though the specific outlets involved haven't been publicly named.
Google News audio briefings on Android now support topic selection and clear source attribution.
The briefings are Android-only, with no stated timeline for iOS. For US listeners who already use Apple News or Spotify's news audio features, Google's version will need to prove its curation quality before winning a daily habit.
What it means for your feed
None of these changes require action — your existing feeds stay as they are. But if you've ever been frustrated by a Discover feed full of topics you didn't ask for, the new natural-language tuning is worth trying when it lands in the Google app over the coming days.