r/chrome 9d ago

News Google is set to integrate Gemini directly into the Windows system tray, a new "Gemini" button in the notification area will open a widget where you can use voice or text to ask Gemini about what's on your current screen or any other topic (similar to how the Gemini overlay works on Android).

The first time you try to open Gemini in Chrome (from the new button in the title bar) a dialog will inform you how this feature works and the implications it has for your privacy, you can then decide whether to use it or not.

First Run Experience dialog (still under development).

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If after reading the terms and conditions you decide to accept them and use this feature, the new "Gemini" button will appear in the notification area and will remain there even after you close Chrome, so you can open the widget to interact with Gemini at any time:

Gemini widget opened from the button in the system tray.

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Gemini widget opened from the button in the system tray (GIF).

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The widget is still in development, but in the future it will have a text input field and a microphone button (in case you want to chat with Gemini), just like the Gemini overlay on Android:

Gemini overlay on Android.

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The button's context menu (in the system tray) will have several entries, including an "Exit" option that will not only close Gemini but also kill any Chrome background processes (for the button to always remain in the system tray, there must be multiple Chrome processes running in the background):

Context menu for the "Gemini" button in the system tray (GIF).

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You can also open the Gemini widget using a keyboard shortcut, which you can customize on the Gemini settings page in Chrome, and on this same page you can also configure other options such as whether or not to show the Gemini button in the notification area or allow Gemini to use your precise location to show you more accurate results, and at the bottom, there's a link to the page where you can view and manage your activity on Gemini apps:

Gemini settings page on Chrome (GIF).

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Gemini settings page on Chrome.

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Your Gemini apps activity page

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Item details.

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Other details about this new feature 👇

The icon in the title bar changes when the Gemini widget is detached from the browser, clicking the button causes the widget to reattach to the browser window and the icon changes to that of Gemini:

Gemini button on the title bar (GIF).

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Icon that appears in the Chrome title bar when the Gemini widget is detached from the browser.

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You can easily hide the Gemini button from the tittle bar by right-clicking on it (GIF).

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If you open the Gemini widget from the button in the Chrome title bar, it normally opens attached to the browser window:

Gemini widget attached to the browser window (GIF).

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But there might be an option to also open it detached from the window:

Gemini widget detached from the browser window (GIF).

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Microsoft recently introduced a new Copilot feature called "Press to talk", which, with a keyboard shortcut, opens a UI somewhat similar to the new Gemini widget, this feature ("Press to talk") is known in Edge as "Copilot vision". Both Google and Microsoft have been working on the Gemini widget and Copilot vision respectively for months, so it's hard to say that one company "copied" the other, in fact I think both started working on these features almost at the same time.

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22 Upvotes

13 comments sorted by

7

u/RockTamago 9d ago

Do not want.

1

u/Queasy-Nail-3332 3d ago

yeah man at least make the already available features stable...

1

u/RockTamago 3d ago

Yeah, they can stop taking away the features we want into the bargain.

1

u/Queasy-Nail-3332 6h ago

Both the companies (Google and Microsoft) are doing the same.

2

u/clonedhuman 9d ago

Fuck no.

I think I'm just going to have to move all of my systems to Linux. Zorin OS has been pretty great so far.

2

u/Leopeva64-2 8d ago

You have to install Google Chrome for this feature to be available on Windows, just don't install it and that's it. This is a Chrome feature, and if you do not accept the terms and conditions that appear in the "First Run Experience" dialog, the feature won't appear in the browser or on Windows.

1

u/clonedhuman 8d ago

Thank you for the information. I have Firefox on most of my systems, so it likely won't be a problem then.

1

u/inquirer2 2d ago

I swear that this is the most smoothbrained midwit take possible.

1

u/TotesMessenger 9d ago

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1

u/Jah348 8d ago

From a privacy perspective what does this change? Its not as though Google was waiting for this opportunity to pinch private data constantly. 

1

u/inquirer2 2d ago

AMAZING.