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Chethan is a reporter at Android Police, focusing on the weekend news coverage for the site. He has covered tech for over a decade with multiple publications, including the likes of Times Internet, Guiding Tech, and Android Headlines, to name a few.
Chethan’s love for Android dates back to the days of the Samsung/Google Nexus S, with his first Android phone being the HTC Desire HD back in 2010.
Away from work, he’s on the lookout for live cricket streams or NBA highlights. He also enjoys the occasional hour or two of console/mobile gaming whenever time permits.
Google Gemini has seen a wave of design changes over the past few months. Prominent among these was the redesign of the Android app’s prompt bar from a rectangular box to a sheet-like design. This meant that the prompt bar/input box had more space to accommodate other tools.
However, the Gemini team may not be entirely happy with the recently updated design, as signs of an updated prompt bar have now emerged. Reporting by Android Authority sheds light on a floating pill-shaped Gemini prompt bar that definitely looks sleeker, but hides some of the easily visible options in the ‘+’ menu.
The prompt box expands when the user opens their keyboard to type, though it’s unclear if this is intentional behavior or something that Google will fix when the redesign is ready to roll out widely. These changes were spotted in version 16.51.52 (beta) of the Google app, and had to be manually activated by the folks at Android Authority.
Current (image 1) vs Upcoming
This redesign also moves the model switcher and items from the existing Tools menu (Create videos, Create images, Deep Research, Canvas, and Guided Learning) to the ‘+’ menu, bringing together most of Gemini’s core features in one place. As you would expect, this redesigned prompt bar will still offer the microphone and Gemini Live icons on the right-hand side.
Despite shrinking the box significantly in this redesign, it definitely looks much cleaner than before. However, we can imagine how the smaller touch target could be an issue for some users.
Current Gemini overlay design vs Upcoming
Meanwhile, the floating Gemini overlay is also getting a minor update that adds the Tools icon to the prompt bar, while also centering the “Ask Gemini” text. Tapping the newly added icon displays the items from the current Gemini app’s Tools menu, which, as we’ve just learned, may cease to exist. Since this doesn’t align with Gemini’s apparent goal of decluttering the app’s prompt bar, Google is likely to make further changes here before pushing out the redesigned overlay.
Lastly, Android Authority has uncovered a feature called Gemini Labs that could debut soon. It is expected to function similarly to Google’s Search Labs program, but that’s all we know right now. We can see the familiar Labs icon here, alongside the Gemini Live icon and text, suggesting this may be a place where users can try new and unreleased Gemini Live experiments.
Google will likely flip the switch on these changes in stages, so don’t expect to see them all hit the stable channel at once. We’re guessing the prompt bar redesign will be the first to arrive (presumably without the inconsistent overlay redesign), while the Gemini Live-related Labs experiment may come at a future date.
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