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Gemini Advanced explained: Availability, language support, and more
Google is making big changes to its generative AI project — Google Bard will now be known as Google Gemini. On the face of it, this is a mere rebrand that doesn’t affect the core functionality of Google’s consumer AI product. However, some other significant changes are worth noting, including the addition of a more powerful Gemini Advanced tier.
What is Gemini Advanced?
To understand Google’s Gemini Advanced product, we first have to understand Gemini itself.
As mentioned above, Google Gemini is a rebrand of Google Bard and gains many core features from the latter. Essentially, Google believed that its consumer-facing product should match the LLM’s (large language model) name, hence the renaming.
Powered by the Gemini Pro LLM, it can process voice, text, and image prompts and create images on demand. Like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, Gemini gains a new Android app that allows mobile users a direct, dedicated portal to the service. iOS users can access Gemini through the Google iOS app. Google Gemini has a new web portal, too.
Upon installation of the new app on your Android smartphone, Gemini effectively replaces Google Assistant on your device. As a result, the new app will handle many of Assistant’s current tasks, including controlling smart home items, placing calls, setting alarms, and more. This also means that Gemini can be summoned through on-screen buttons, hardware buttons, swipe shortcuts, or vocally through the “Hey Google” keyword.
Gemini Advanced is Gemini premium with more tricks up its sleeve.
While the base Gemini offering is free, Gemini Advanced is not. As its name suggests, Advanced adds more complexity and ability to the Gemini experience. It’s based on the Gemini Ultra 1.0 LLM — the company’s most potent large language model — giving it a deeper understanding of prompts and logical reasoning nuances. This means it can tackle longer instructions and can complete more intricate tasks demanded of it. Essentially, Gemini Advanced is Gemini premium with more tricks up its sleeve. Think of it as a ChatGPT Plus or Copilot Pro competitor.
Google notes that Advanced will gain more features as it continues to work on the offering.
How much does Gemini Advanced cost?
As mentioned above, Gemini Advanced is not free. As Google’s most powerful offering, it demands a monthly fee.
Gemini Advanced forms part of the new Google One AI Premium tier, which costs $19.99 per month in the US — $10 on top of the current 2TB storage plan. The plan includes access to Gemini Advanced, 2TB of One storage, and Gemini for Workspace (formerly Duet AI) in Google’s office products, like Docs and Gmail, at a later date. If you want to try Gemini Advanced, there’s a two-month trial for the tier.
Where is Gemini Advanced available, and which languages are supported?
Initially, Gemini Advanced will be available in more than 150 countries globally in English starting February 8, 2024, but broader language support is expected to roll out soon. Japanese and Korean are expected to be among the first additional languages supported.
Gemini Advanced FAQs
Gemini Advanced is well worth it if you find AI tools useful in your workplace and want the benefits of Google One storage, too. However, not everyone will need the level of complexity that Advanced provides, so paying $19.99 monthly for access won’t make sense for every user.
Gemini is essentially the new Google Assistant replacement and Bard rebrand, while Google Advanced is the premium offering with more powerful tools. Gemini Pro and Gemini Ultra are the company’s two large language models powering Gemini and Gemini Advanced, respectively. Finally, Gemini Nano is a model designed to run on-device, while Gemini for Workspace is the rebrand of Duet AI.
No, not immediately, anyway. However, if you install the Gemini app on your phone, you can opt-in to use Gemini instead of Assistant on your device.