Tushar Mehta / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google’s been developing a new compact screen-bottom overlay for interacting with Gemini Live.
- This bar may feature the button that will activate Gemini Live’s version of Circle to Search.
- Google also appears to be considering captioning controls for the overlay.
Google’s got a lot happening right now when it comes to Gemini Live, and we’re not just talking about all those new app extensions we’ve spotted the app getting ready to support. Over the last few months we’ve been tracking the efforts of development across a number of fronts, from Live’s support for Circle to Search-style screen input, to implementing a compact new overlay interface. As we get ready for those to make their public debut, we’ve uncovered some further details about what to expect.
An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
For both of these here we’re looking at the 16.25.44.sa.arm64 beta release of Google’s Android app. Although we haven’t yet spotted Circle to Search branding in Live (one early appearance featured a “Circle Screen” label), it seems clear that Google’s working on something that’s at least functionally equivalent. Last time around, we were able to surface an early interface in the form of a Floating Action Button (FAB) with the icon of a pen.
If you thought that sole FAB looked a little wonky, you weren’t wrong, and this new UI Google appears to be pursuing feels like it makes a lot more sense. Here we’ve been able to activate it with one form of that in-development overlay, where its presence looks more appropriate. We also observe that its behavior feels a little more correct now when selected, highlighting the icon rather than using the strikethrough we saw last time.
You might have already noticed the other new development we’re highlighting today, with a caption button now perched above the overlay. That placement is a little bit awkward, rather than putting it down in the bar with the rest of our controls, but things are admittedly getting a little cozy in there.
Once you toggle captions on when using Gemini Live, their presence will persist even if you minimize the overlay and caption button, just how we’d like to see. Really, if Google can just figure out maybe a smarter place to put that control, this feels like it should be in good shape.
Right now, none of these tweaks are yet publicly accessible to Android users, but they offer our best look at the direction Gemini Live is headed, should Google ultimately follow-through on development.
