Google updates its Gemini app to take on ChatGPT and Claude at IO 2026
Quick Answer
Google's Gemini app receives major updates, including the 'Daily Brief' feature, a new AI video model called Gemini Omni, and a personal AI agent named Gemini Spark, enhancing its competitiveness against ChatGPT and Claude.
Quick Take
The app aims to be an all-purpose AI hub, boasting over 900 million monthly users worldwide.
Key Points
- The 'Daily Brief' organizes user information and prioritizes tasks for morning use.
- Gemini Spark acts as a 24/7 personal AI agent, enabling custom workflows.
- Gemini Omni allows users to generate high-quality videos from simple prompts.
- The app features a new design language, 'Neural Expressive,' enhancing user experience.
- Gemini currently has over 900 million monthly users in 230+ countries.
📖 Reader Mode
~3 min readAt its annual Google I/O event on Tuesday, Google announced that the Gemini app is getting a series of new updates, including a “Daily Brief” feature, a redesigned interface, access to a new AI video model called Gemini Omni, and new personal AI agent called Gemini Spark.
The updates signal Google’s push to turn its Gemini app into an all-purpose AI hub rather than a stand-alone chatbot and to make the AI assistant more competitive with apps like ChatGPT and Claude.
Google describes the new Daily Brief feature as a personalized digest designed to be your first stop each morning. It pulls together information from a user’s inbox, calendar, and most important tasks, and then organizes them into a clear overview. The company says Daily Brief doesn’t just summarize this information — it also prioritizes tasks and suggests next steps, with the most important items shown first.
Daily Brief is rolling out today to Google AI subscribers in the United States.
The Gemini app already has considerable reach: The company said it has more than 900 million monthly users and is available in over 230 countries and in more than 70 languages. But Google clearly wants more and without losing its existing customers.
Google said it rebuilt the app from the ground up. Now when users open the app, they’ll see a new design language called “Neural Expressive,” which brings fluid animations, vibrant colors, new typography, and haptic feedback.
Gemini’s responses are no longer presented as a wall of text, which is the case with most AI chatbots. Instead, key information appears in bold at the top. Additional text and possibly other elements such as images and timelines appear as the user scrolls down.
As for Gemini Spark, Google describes it as a 24/7 personal AI agent that helps you navigate your digital life. Spark transforms Gemini from an assistant into an active partner that does real work on your behalf. Since it’s a cloud-based agent, Spark keeps working in the background even when you lock your phone. With Gemini Spark in the Gemini app, users will be able to create their own custom workflows.
Spark is currently in testing and the company expects to make it available to Google AI Ultra subscribers next week.
The company’s new AI video model, Gemini Omni, combines Gemini with Google’s generative media models to create outputs grounded in knowledge. For example, you could give it a simple prompt like “claymation explainer of protein folding.” The model lets you upload audio, images, and video to generate a consistent, high-quality video, according to Google.
By adding access to a new video-generation model like Gemini Omni, Google is intensifying competition among major AI platforms in the ongoing race to lead multimodal content generation. The model is rolling out to Google Flow and YouTube Shorts for Google AI subscribers, underscoring the company’s broader push into multimodal content creation and AI-powered video tools.
Catch up on the rest of Google IO 2026’s big news
Google Search as you know it is over
Google updates Gemini app to take on ChatGPT and Claude
Google introduces Gemini Spark, a 24/7 agent assistant with Gmail integration
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Aisha is a consumer news reporter at TechCrunch. Prior to joining the publication in 2021, she was a telecom reporter at MobileSyrup. Aisha holds an honours bachelor’s degree from University of Toronto and a master’s degree in journalism from Western University.
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— Originally published at techcrunch.com
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