Gemini widgets to Apple devices from Google — tips to enable them

Google Gemini users can now access the AI chatbot directly from the lock screen on their iPhones. This feature was introduced with an update released on Monday, March 3. To interact with Google’s Gemini Live voice feature, it is enough to add a widget to the lock screen and start a conversation with the bot even before unlocking the smartphone.

TechCrunch writes about it.

iPhone users can use Google Gemini on the lock screen

With Apple allegedly postponing the release of its own AI-enabled version of Siri until 2027, other AI developers have started offering their solutions for the iPhone. Although Apple’s own solution is likely to have deeper integrations with all iPhone features, current LLM-based tools and third-party voice assistants allow users to evaluate their capabilities right now.

In addition, owners of the iOS version of ChatGPT can also call the Advanced Voice Mode feature directly from the lock screen.

The updated Gemini application contains not only Gemini Live but also additional widgets that allow users to take photos and send them to a chatbot, create reminders and calendar events, or instantly switch to text chat.

Google also announced that this month, the Gemini version for Android will receive features that will allow users to get answers to questions about videos or any content on the screen while they are watching it. These features are part of Google DeepMind’s Project Astra, a large-scale project that aims to integrate multimodal AI development into the Gemini application.

Initially, these tools will be available to Gemini Advanced subscribers for USD 20 per month.

As a reminder, Apple is preparing the new conversational version of Siri in the iOS 19.4 update next year. However, according to the latest information from insiders, the company is behind the planned schedule.

We also wrote that Google disclosed the cost of using the new Veo 2 video generator. Users will have to pay 50 cents per second of generated video.