Google app can now ‘Simplify’ complex text on iOS

Abner Li | May 6 2025 - 9:00 am PT

The Google app on iOS, which has its own web browser, is adding a new “Simplify” feature when you come across complex text.

When viewing a Search result or Discover article in the Google app, highlighting text that “uses jargon or technical concepts you’re not familiar with” will reveal a new “Simplify” option in the “More actions” panel (alongside Search and Translate).

This opens a sheet with a “new, simpler version of the text, helping you quickly understand a new concept so you can keep reading.”

Behind-the-scenes, this is powered by Gemini (1.5) models “specifically designed for minimally-lossy (high fidelity) text simplification.” Google is doing more than just summarizing or explaining. It has to “paraphrase complex ideas accurately without introducing errors or omitting key details.”

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The re-written text must help the reader understand challenging material without sacrificing the integrity of the original information.

One biomedical example is below:

Original: The complex pathology of this condition involves emphysematous destruction of lung parenchyma, diffuse interstitial fibrosis, changes in the composition of lung immune cells, increased production of immunomodulatory factors and the prominent remodeling of pulmonary vasculature
Simplified: This complex condition involves damage to the lung tissue from emphysema, a disease that damages the air sacs in the lungs, and widespread scarring of the lung tissue, called fibrosis. The immune cells in the lungs change, and the body makes more immunomodulatory factors, substances that control the immune system. The blood vessels in the lungs also change a lot.

Google conducted research testing that found the “simplified text to be significantly more helpful than the original complex text, and better retained the information.” It tested across complex medical research, biology, law, finance, literature, philosophy, aerospace, and computer science domains.