Google is competing with Pinterest with a dedicated tab for “inspirational” images in its mobile app

Google is adding a new feature to its mobile app that will likely challenge Pinterest to become users’ first stop for inspiring images: a dedicated photo tab. The company announced Wednesday that it is introducing a new “Photos” icon at the bottom of the Google Search app for iOS and Android devices that will display images tailored to the user’s interests.

Google says that the images will be updated daily, noting that the feature will provide users with a way to organize their creative ideas, or find visual inspiration for things like planning a trip, hosting a party, decorating your apartment, or discovering new fashions.

These use cases are, of course, among the top reasons why users turn to Pinterest and other social apps, like Instagram.

Users can browse photos in the Google New Tab, search for other photos, and save the photos they like to their collections.

With this addition, Google is likely hoping to increase user interaction with its app, especially as artificial intelligence companies consume its search and advertising work.

More importantly, perhaps, this feature gives Google a new surface within its popular search app where it can run ads. Already, the company has been spotted testing a carousel display of ads within the image tab on mobile devices, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see ads appear under this new tab as well.

This isn’t the first time Google has announced a dedicated feature to save images and other bookmarks from search. The company launched the Collections feature in 2018, and later added AI features to suggest other items you can save to your Collections. However, this feature did not focus only on images, but also encouraged users to save websites, products, and map locations.

Google says the new Photos tab in the Search app will roll out over the next few weeks on iOS and Android in the US, and did not provide a time frame for the feature’s global launch.