Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Gemini picked up support for Audio Overviews earlier this year.
- While Gemini could generate these virtual podcasts, it lacked a native way to play them.
- In its latest update, the Gemini app is now picking up its own Audio Overview player.
The next time you cross paths with an AI nay-sayer who just doesn’t get what’s so useful about these tools, pull out your phone and introduce them to Audio Overviews. Google launched this output mode with NotebookLM last year, and it’s really something, generating a virtual “podcast” hosted by a pair of AI characters who entertainingly break down the topic at hand. Since then we’ve seen Google expand access, bringing Audio Overviews to Search and Gemini, and today we’ve got some news about an improvement for the latter.
As Gemini expands to do more and more, we’ve noticed Google paying more attention to ways it can make those new corners of the Gemini experience feel more like natural growth of the service, and less like tacked-on extensions. For instance, Canvas makes it easy to work with code in the Gemini on Android, but right now those code previews are rendered in a custom Chrome tab. Instead, we’ve seen Google working towards a more integrated view, displaying Canvas previews right in Gemini itself.
Now it looks like Google is taking the same approach to Audio Overviews. The team over at 9to5Google just spotted that the Gemini app on both Android and iOS has started offering the ability to play Audio Overviews you generate right within the app, instead of kicking you over to Chrome.
Playback controls look reasonably full-featured, with a seek bar for easy jogging around, buttons to jump forward and back, and even playback speed control — a podcast staple. And if you’re not ready to listen just now, there’s a convenient button for downloading a copy for later.
Look for the integrated Audio Overview player to start appearing in Gemini with version 16.27 of the Google app.
