Google Bard is going to see a big change in the next few days, as an early changelog reveals that a brand new “Gemini” is coming next week with a new Android app and more.
Over the past few months, Google has been rapidly building out Bard, its creative AI-powered chat experience, with new features and capabilities. Last year, Bard was promoted using “Gemini” as a behind-the-scenes model, and recently a photo creator was added. But, all along, Google was working on a major change to Bard.
As we reported earlier this week, evidence spotted through Android and Bard's web experience showed that Google is looking to rename Bard as “Gemini,” consistent with the name of the underlying model it runs on. Now, the Bard's early changelog spotted by Dylan Russell shows that change is coming this week.
The changelog, currently with a date of February 7, says directly that “Bard is now Gemini,” and also provides some insight into Google's reasoning. As announced this week, Gemini Pro now supports Bard in all countries and languages where Bard is available. Google says the rebranding fits this better.
We're committed to giving everyone direct access to Google AI, and starting this week, every Gemini user across our supported countries and languages will have access to the best collection of Google AI models. To better embody this commitment, we've renamed Bard to Gemini.
In addition to the name change, Google also notes in the changelog that access to “Gemini Advanced” will also be available starting February 7. The “Advanced” tier was announced in December 2023 and is based on the “Gemini Ultra”, the most capable of Google's models. We have also reported that it will be paid with some add-ons added as well. Google's changelog directly notes that this is a paid product, and that it will expand with more features including “expanded multimedia capabilities,” better markup support, “the ability to upload and analyze files, documents, data more deeply, and more.” “.
After rebranding from Bard, Google Gemini will also get an Android app.
Google explains:
Get help learning in new ways, writing thank you notes, planning events, and more with Google AI on your phone. Gemini is integrated with Google apps like Gmail, Maps, and YouTube, making it easy to get things done on your phone. You can interact with it through text, audio or images.
To chat with Gemini on Android, download the Gemini app in the Google Play Store. On iOS, try Gemini in the Google app.
While there's no preview of the app currently, previous evidence we've reported on suggests that this “app” will work much like the current experience of using Google Assistant on Android. Specifically, we found that the current Google Assistant “app” available through the Play Store, which is actually just a home screen shortcut, is being updated to be called “Gemini.” Last month, we also shared screenshots from an early version of the experience, including the settings menu.
Google's changelog indicates that the app will only be available on “select devices” — we reported months ago that this might only be the Tensor-powered Pixels and Galaxy S24 — in English in the US. It will also expand to include “Japanese, Korean, and English globally excluding the United Kingdom, Switzerland, European Economic Area countries and associated territories,” with more countries and languages to follow.
Finally, Google Gemini will also expand to Canada on February 7. Bard was never released in the region, with Canada being one of the only major regions without support.
As always with these early changelogs, there's a chance things could change a little between now and the official announcement, including the actual date. However, it is clear that things were developing quickly towards this launch.
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