Forget new models — Gemini's working on what really matters: dark mode options

Keeping up with all of Google’s changes to Gemini is basically a full-time job these days, and when the company’s not introducing a new model, it’s expanding what the service is able to connect to. Sometimes, though, the latest Gemini updates are all about the app itself — and that’s exactly what we’re shining a light on today, as we check out a couple in-development tweaks to Gemini for Android.

Remember five or six years ago, when Android fans were inundated by news of all their favorite apps finally implementing dark mode support? For some of you, this is the coolest UI update possible, while others just could not care less — so long as they have the option to opt out of it, anyway.

Right now, dark mode for Gemini is entirely dependent on your phone’s system settings. But looking through version 17.61.19.sa.arm64 of the Google app for Android, we’ve spotted Gemini working on some custom controls:

As you can see, users could soon find an option for overriding the system setting and forcing Gemini to stick with light or dark mode.

Like we mentioned, this change shows up in the Google app, but it’s worth noting that these new options are Gemini-specific, and won’t affect how you normally see the Google app respond to dark mode.

Remember the notifications

In addition to those new dark mode controls, we’ve also identified an upgrade for Gemini’s notification support. The app already gives you a nice degree of control over the types of Gemini notifications you’ll see, including your Daily Brief, regular Gemini responses, and more. But coming soon, Gemini could also start archiving your notification history.

Once live, you’ll access this by tapping the bell icon up top. When it debuts, you’ll see that introductory message at first, and find all your recent notifications below.

We’re also seeing progress towards being able to long-press on a notification and being able to either open it or remove it from the list, but this isn’t quite working right yet. Still, it all seems like a useful addition to let us easily catch up on our recent work with Gemini, and make sure we didn’t miss anything important. We’ll keep an eye on further progress, and let you know if we spot it go live.