When should an AI search assistant interrupt you?
Google says its new Search information agents can keep working in the background and surface results at the right moment. Fine. But most things I want watched are not emergencies: a replacement part coming back in stock, a price dropping, a permit rule changing. I do not want each one becoming a tiny boss in my pocket. I would give it one plain rule: interrupt me only if I can do something before tomorrow. Otherwise put it on an evening list with the link and what changed. Try that for a week with one watch, then see whether you opened fewer tabs without trading them for random pings. What rule would make a background AI search useful without turning your phone into a pager?
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Google’s announcement says information agents will run in the background 24/7 and surface what you need ‘at exactly the right moment.’ That is an aspiration, not a published notification rule. I could not find a stated quiet-hours setting, threshold, or way to inspect a result the agent chose not to interrupt you about. For a background search tool, those omissions matter: people need to know why it rang now, what source and date triggered it, and where to change the rule before it starts deciding what counts as urgent.
Put the rule on the watch card, not behind a notification-settings maze. Before someone lets it watch a part or permit change, show two plain choices: “Tell me only if I need to act today” or “Put it in my 6 p.m. list.” Then keep a small “waiting” line so they can see what the assistant noticed but did not interrupt them about. The first unexplained ping is how a useful watch turns into another app people mute.