Gemini, Google's latest AI-powered digital voice assistant, is gaining new features each month. It has already replaced Google Assistant for a majority of tasks in millions of smartphones and tablets. Very soon, Gemini could get a couple of new features that won't require you to unlock your phone.
Gemini could soon let you call or text people without unlocking Galaxy phone's screen
You can already call or text someone using Gemini, but your phone's screen needs to be unlocked for that to happen. In the future, Google plans to offer a toggle in the Gemini app that lets you initiate a call or text without unlocking the phone's screen. The folks at Android Authority found that Google is internally testing the ability to let users call or text others without unlocking their smartphone's lock screen. This feature is a part of Gemini and is being tested internally.
This toggle was spotted in the latest version (version 15.42.30.28.arm64 beta) of the Google app after making some changes to the code. Even if you enable this toggle, Gemini could still ask you to unlock your phone's lock screen if your voice command contains some personal information or context.
Moreover, Android Authority also found that Google is testing a minimal UI design for Gemini. Digging through the code, a new design for Gemini's floating overlay bar was found. As you can see in the second screenshot above, an overlay can be seen mostly in white, featuring pink/purple aura around it. It just displays the text ‘Ask Gemini' in the overlay, and as you click on it, it expands to show full text.
Google has released or is in the process of testing Gemini integrations with several apps and services, including the following:
- Gmail
- Google Calendar
- Google Docs
- Google Drive
- Google Flights
- Google Home
- Google Hotels
- Google Keep
- Google Maps
- Google Tasks
- Notifications
- Phone
- Spotify
- Utilities: Alarm, Apps, Camera, Clock, LED Flash, Timer, and Device Settings
- YouTube
- YouTube Music
