Google is adding a ‘Web Stories‘ carousel to the Discover section of its search app on Android and iOS. The feature has just started rolling out in the US, India and Brazil at the top of the Discover tab, and helps users find some of the best visual content from around the web. Google says it will expand Web Stories to more countries and Google products in the future, but there’s no exact timeline that at this point.
To browse Stories, users will have to tap on any article of their choice to expand it to full-screen mode, as seen in the GIF below. Users can then swipe right or left to either read the next story or go back to the previous one. In addition to Discover, Google will also surface more Web Stories across its search results globally on mobile.
To help jumpstart the Web Stories ecosystem, Google says it has worked with a diverse group of publishers and creation tools in the US, India and Brazil this year. The company claims that it has partnered with more than 2000 companies on the new feature including, Forbes, Vice, USA Today, Lonely Planet, PopSugar, The Dodo, PC Gamer and more.
According to Google, Story authors are in full control of monetization, hosting, sharing and adding links to their Stories for now, although, it is not immediately clear whether that could change going forward. Either way, the feature has just started rolling out with the latest update to the Google app on Android and iOS, and we will get more information on this in the days ahead.
