A reported Google Discover test would make the sources control on AI summary cards stop responding to taps. Damien Andell, who tracks Discover closely, posted the finding on X on Oct. 23, according to Search Engine Roundtable. Barry Schwartz wrote that he tried to replicate it without success, so treat it as a limited, unconfirmed test.
Today, tapping sources beneath an AI summary opens a mini-feed of the articles the summary drew on. Andell tied the change to a flag named disable_aio_sources_button_tap, which would leave that mini-feed unreachable. The Search Engine Roundtable post includes no statement from Google about the test.
The stakes are clear for publishers. That mini-feed is the route from an AI summary to the cited articles, and Discover summaries have upset many publishers since Google added them in 2025. Schwartz asked whether the change is a bug.
Publishers should watch Discover referral reports for dips on summarized cards and log the dates, since a test this narrow will be hard to see in aggregate traffic.
Search Engine Roundtable (Barry Schwartz), citing Damien Andell’s Oct. 23, 2026 post on X.
