Aamir Siddiqui / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Gemini’s Android overlay does not currently let you leave and resume without starting fresh each time.
- Google’s working on an update that collapses the overlay into a floating button that lets you resume your session.
- You can even navigate away while Gemini’s working on its results and be told when they’re ready.
2025 is the year many of us got comfortable using Gemini, and even as Google pushes back its timetable for moving everyone off of Assistant, those of us who have already made the transition know just how great Gemini’s been on mobile devices (while Home is a whole different story). We’ve got a ton of different ways to access it on our phones, from the Gemini app, to AI Mode in Search, but the easiest and most convenient has got to be calling up the Gemini overlay. For as much as we like having Gemini on demand like that, it looks like Google’s working on a change that could make this experience even better.
Right now, when you pull up the Gemini overlay with Google’s hotword or by long-pressing your power button, you’re basically locked in to working with Gemini until you’re done with it. While it may appear as an overlay, the second you tap on the background, it vanishes. And then the next time you call it up, you’re starting that interaction from scratch — there’s no way to go back and forth between Gemini and the app you were working in.
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That’s fine, and if we want to have the option to jump between Gemini and another app, we can always just use the Gemini app instead of the overlay. But Google seems to think that there could be a better way to do this, and in version 16.51.52.sa.arm64 beta of the Google Android app we’ve uncovered some new Gemini behavior that finally makes the overlay friendly with multitasking.
None of this is user-facing just yet, but we’ve been able to get an early look at a revised interface that lets you navigate away from the Gemini overlay, without losing your place. Check out this demo:
After starting a Gemini query through the overlay, we’re able to jump back to our app while Gemini does its thinking, and get a heads-up when our result is ready to see. Then it’s just a matter of tapping on that floating button to go back to the overlay.
That even serves as a means to keep a Gemini session active, letting us essentially minimize the overlay without losing our place, and bringing the same Gemini conversation back up later. When you’re finally done with Gemini, swiping back dismisses the overlay for good.
Honestly, there’s not really anything we don’t like about this change — it feels like an upgrade all around. Hopefully Google lets this one loose on the Gemini-using public in the near future.
⚠️ 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.
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