Switch from Discovery for Media to media recommendations

This page is for helping Discovery for Media users switch to media recommendations.

What's changing?

Google is moving Discovery for Media functionality to media recommendations, a capability of Vertex AI Search. The documents and user events that you created using Discovery for Media remain unchanged. All of your existing data and models will automatically appear in the Agent Builder console, the models appearing as apps. You can manage these resources in the Agent Builder console and using the API. This change means that the same user data can be used for multiple Vertex AI Agent Builder use cases, such as search, recommendations, and conversation.

Media recommendations functionality in the Discovery Engine console is now available in the Agent Builder console. The Discovery Engine console is scheduled to be deprecated at the end of March 2024, so you should begin using the Agent Builder console as soon as possible. The API is unchanged, so your API calls will continue working after the Discovery Engine console is deprecated.

Summary of changes:

  • Media recommendations functionality in the Discovery Engine console is now available in the Agent Builder console.

  • The Discovery Engine console is scheduled to be deprecated at the end of March 2024.

  • Models in Discovery for Media are replaced by recommendations types in media recommendations apps. You can have one only one recommendation type per app, but you can connect multiple apps to the same data store. For more information, see Create a media data store and Create media apps.

  • Serving configs in Discovery for Media are replaced by app configurations. Unlike in Discovery for Media, where a single model can be associated with multiple serving configs, a media recommendations app can have only one app configuration. If you have a model that is associated with multiple serving configs, Google suggests that you continue using Discovery for Media until this feature is available with media recommendations. For more information, see Demote media recommendations and Diversify media recommendations.

  • You can have multiple data stores in the same project.

  • Data stores contain both documents and user events.

  • There is no Manual tune only setting in media recommendations apps, as there is for models in Discovery for Media. All media recommendations apps created using Vertex AI Search are automatically tuned every three months, and there is no setting to change this. This means that by default your apps will tune every three months. If you want to change the Tuning status for a model that you created in Discovery for Media, do so before Discovery for Media is deprecated.

What's not changing?

  • All of your documents, user events, models, and settings in Discovery for Media persist in media recommendations apps and data stores.

  • All of the APIs remain the same.

  • The Discovery Engine console will no longer be updated with new features.

What's next?