Google’s decision to rename extensions to apps appears to be an attempt to make the chatbot more unified.
Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking is a reasoning-focused AI model
Photo Credit: Google
Google is making a couple of changes to Gemini. Announced on Friday, one of the changes is focused on the lexicon of Gemini tools, while the other improves the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot's capability of connecting with different apps. The company is currently rolling out this update to all Google Workspace accounts, although the renaming effort applies to all users. The Mountain View-based tech giant is now calling Gemini extensions “apps,” likely to make it a more unified experience for users.
In a blog post, the tech giant announced the two changes. First, Gemini extensions will now be called “apps”. Notably, the extensions themselves are not being renamed, instead, the company is removing the mention of extensions altogether. The term is being removed from everywhere on the app and the Gemini web client.
The extensions menu is now called Apps. The description on the page now mentions, “Bring it all together with Gemini and your favourite apps” instead of “Gemini Extensions help you bring it all together.” The mention of “Turn Gemini Extensions on or off anytime” is also changed to “Manage which apps Gemini connects to.”
What Google seems to be doing here is making users believe that Gemini AI is intrinsically connecting with apps now, instead of using a separate extension for the same. This makes Gemini's offerings more unified, and will also make users less apprehensive when they give the chatbot access to one of the apps. In the post, the tech giant notes, “there are no changes to functionality.”
The second feature is more interesting. These “apps” (formerly known as extensions) will now be powered by the Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking (experimental). Google says this will allow the AI to deliver “improved performance and better advanced reasoning capabilities with efficiency and speed.”
In real-world experience, this should translate to Gemini assistant completing more complex app-based tasks and understanding vaguely worded commands. These improved capabilities will be powered by the 2.0 Flash Thinking, which is a reasoning-focused AI model. However, since reasoning models increase the time spent on a problem to enhance performance, it is unclear whether app-based tasks will be slower or not.
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