Google already started rolling out Gemini widgets for iOS and is now adding them for Android users. Gemini is Google’s most advanced large language model. As a multimodal model, Gemini can both understand and generate text, images, audio, video, and code. In iOS and Android, Gemini can answer your queries; with the new widgets, both iPhone and Android users can quickly and easily access Google’s AI by easily integrating it into the use of their smartphones.
To be able to access the widgets, you’re going to have to install the Gemini app from the App Store for iOS, and from the Google Play Store for Android. Once you’ve done that, you can add the widget to the appropriate home screen. For example, on iOS, long press on some empty real estate on the home screen until your apps go into “jiggle mode.” You’ll know when that happens, trust me. Once your apps are in jiggle mode, tap the Edit button in the top left of the display. From there, tap “Add Widget,” and scroll down to find the Gemini widgets. Select the one you want and tap the “Add widget” button at the bottom of the screen.
Android users can add the widget by long pressing on an area of the home screen without an icon. A menu will pop up that will include “Widgets” as an option. Tap on it and look for Gemini. Find the widget you want and tap on the +Add button at the bottom of the screen. Some of these widgets resemble the ones available for Google Search.
Android users need to be running version 1.0.751104895 of the Gemini app to see the widgets on their phones. To find out which version of the app you have installed, go to Settings > Apps > Gemini and scroll to the bottom of the page. Unfortunately, the version of Gemini on my Pixel 6 Pro is 1.0.741105040 which means I have yet to receive the update. For iPhone users, they need to be running version 1.2025.1662203 of the iOS Gemini app to see the Gemini widgets on their iPhones.
If you plan on using Gemini or ChatGPT to answer the questions you used to ask Siri or Google Assistant, it’s great to have both accessible via a widget tap. On iOS, you can also access ChatGPT via the Action Button or the Visual Intelligence feature offered on the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, the iPhone 16e, and the iPhone 16 series. Just keep in mind that when using AI apps like Gemini and ChatGPT to replace Siri and Google Assistant, they cannot yet set up alarms or timers on request.
There is a solution, of course. You can always just open the Clock app and manually set an alarm or timer.
