Google’s new compact Gemini Live overlay is getting better

Over the past few days, we’ve been spotting a lot of changes that have popped up in Google’s most recent update to its Android app. Those finds included stuff like work towards a new, more colorful look for the Gemini overlay, as well as evidence pointing to Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Flip 7 and Fold 7 arriving with a Google AI promo offer. But as we were poking around in search of changes like these, we’ve also uncovered signs of development on other tweaks that are a bit less impactful on their own. Rather than let those go forgotten, we’ve decided to round up a few of them here, all in one place.

Just like those last few finds, we’re once again working with the 16.23.69.sa.arm64 beta release of the Google app for Android. None of the changes we’re going over are yet publicly visible in that build, but we were able to trigger some early looks to give you a preview of how development is coming along.

For starters, we’ve got a small reorganization that Google seems to be considering. On the left there we’ve got the Google app as we’re currently familiar with it, featuring that big “Google” name centered up top and the shortcut to Labs in the top-left. But on the right you can see a new layout that the app has started playing with, sliding Labs over to the right and dropping the Google wordmark in favor of the compact “G” logo.

Last week, we shared Google’s progress towards building a new, compact overlay for Gemini Live that would live down at the bottom of the screen and offer convenient controls for stuff like sharing your screen without needing to jump back into the Gemini app. Well, it appears that Google’s already been working on some new behavior for this mode.

We already saw how these Live controls could be summoned by hitting the Live button in the main Gemini overlay. Now we’re also able to access it by starting our Live conversation in the app and navigating away.

You also may have noticed in our earlier look how Gemini Live showed when it was hearing you by displaying an audio waveform visualization within the overlay. While that’s still present here, we’re now able to also see a similar visualization when minimizing the overlay down to just the floating Live button.

Finally, we’ve spotted a change to how Google suggests Search queries. The app is experimenting with explicitly recommending AI Mode searches. Google seems to be going out of its way to conspicuously label these as such, and considering the controversy around that mode, we think Google probably has the right idea here.

Like we said, none of these finds are particularly game changing (although that Live overlay looks quite nice), and the jury’s still out on whether or not Google will ultimately follow through and ship any in future updates. Until that day happens, though, we’ll keep on digging through upcoming releases in search of more changes.