Gemini Live on your phone may soon be just a swipe away

Google’s Gemini chatbot can hold much more in-depth conversations than its old Google Assistant service, but the default way to access it can feel slow. Thankfully, Google offers a more conversational way to talk to Gemini called Gemini Live, which even lets you share your phone’s video feed or screen while chatting. The main issue with Gemini Live, however, is that it’s always one tap away — you have to hit a button after opening the mobile app, long-pressing the power button, or swiping from the corner.

Soon, you may not need that extra tap. Some users are reporting a new way to launch Gemini Live within the app: swiping left or right to switch between the regular text-based chat and the live experience. Here’s a video of this new in-app swipe gesture, courtesy of tipster Lord Reset on X:

This new gesture is rolling out for a small number of users alongside a broader UI update that brings the Gemini mobile app more in line with the web version. In the past 24 hours, multiple users have reported seeing a new navigation drawer on the left-hand side of the app. On phones, you can expand it by tapping a new hamburger menu icon, revealing your custom Gems and recent chat history in a panel that overlays the main chat window. On tablets and book-style foldables, the navigation drawer is expanded by default to take advantage of their larger screens.

While we’ve only seen one report of the swipe gesture so far, our resident APK teardown specialist, AssembleDebug, spotted it in the app’s code a couple of months ago. It’s safe to say Google is at least considering the feature, though a wider rollout isn’t guaranteed to happen. Currently, there’s no obvious visual indicator for the swipe gesture, which might limit its discovery and is something Google may address if it commits to the feature.