Google rebrands Bard to Gemini: new Android app, advanced features, and subscription plans

Google has rebranded its AI to Google Gemini, incorporating the formerly known Bard chatbot and releasing an Android app specifically for it. The AI features of Google Workspace, previously Google Duet AI, are now under the Gemini brand as well. Furthermore, the most advanced version of Google's language model, Gemini Ultra 1.0, has been made public.

Gemini's mobile apps on Android allow users to make it their default assistant, potentially replacing Google Assistant. For iOS users, while there's no dedicated Gemini app, they can use Gemini's AI features through the Google app.

Gemini Ultra offers advanced features like handling long conversations, understanding context, and performing complex tasks like coding and logical reasoning. To use those, users need a Gemini Advanced subscription, included in the $20 monthly Google One AI Premium plan, which also provides 2TB of Google Drive storage.

Gemini is becoming a key part of Google's ecosystem, as we recently witnessed with the addition of the free AI image generation feature and Gemini Pro expansion. Now, with the addition of a toggle in the Google app to switch between Search and Gemini functions, we can get an idea of the shift from Google's traditional Search-centric approach, emphasizing Gemini's growing significance and perhaps a closer approach to what Perplexity or Arc Search are already doing.